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Visual History of the World
(CONTENTS)
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The World Wars and Interwar
Period
1914-1945
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The first half of the 20th
century saw the world entangled in two global wars, conducted with
an unprecedented brutality. The First World War developed from a
purely European affair into a conflict involving the colonies and
the United States. It altered Europe's political landscape and
shifted the power balance worldwide. In World War II, the nations of
Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa were drawn into the conflict
through the aggressive policies of an ambitious Nazi Germany. The
war was conducted with the most up-to-date weapons technology and
cost the lives of more than 55 million people. The Holocaust, the
systematic annihilation of the European Jews, represented an
unparalleled moral catastrophe for modern civilization.
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Pablo Picasso "Weeping Woman", 1937
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Belgium and the Netherlands: Objects of German Power Politics
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1914-1945
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While Belgium became the military invasion route for the German armies
during both world wars, the Netherlands survived the Great War
unscathed. In World War II, however, it could not hold off the attack
of the Germans and became an occupied territory of the Nazi Reich.
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The Netherlands between Independence and National Socialism
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Despite economic problems, the Netherlands was able to assert its
neutrality until 1940 and remained politically stable. After the country
was occupied by German troops, the new rulers implemented Nazi policies
in the Netherlands, including the deportation of Dutch Jews to death
camps.
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The Netherlands survived World War I without internal upheaval, and
coped well economically despite sheltering almost a million refugees who
flooded out of Belgium in 1914. However, the blockade imposed
principally by the Royal Navy had a restrictive effect on Dutch maritime
traffic with countries which Britain and France feared could supply
Germany. A severe shortage of coal led to the near-paralysis of Dutch
industry. With the introduction of universal suffrage in 1917, the
constitutional monarchy was democratized further, though a socialist
revolution instigated by Pieter Jelles Troelstra was unsuccessful. The
outbreak of the world economic crisis in 1929 (p. 506) caused a rapid
increase in unemployment in the kingdom, however.
Externally the Netherlands committed itself to strict neutrality, but it
was naturally interested in maintaining good relations with its German
neighbor. For this reason, the government granted asylum to Wilhelm II
in 1918.
The 1933 victory of the National Socialists in Germany divided the
Netherlands.
Dutch supporters of Hitler, who organized themselves under
7 Anton Adriaan Mussert, remained a
minority, but after the first immigration wave of Jewish refugees, fears
of 8 Judaization became
widespread, particularly in Protestant circles.
The government followed
news of German aggression with anxiety and ordered a general
mobilization in 1939.
The army of the Netherlands was no match for the German attack in May
1940. After the bombardment of Rotterdam, the government capitulated and
fled to London along with the royal family. The Nazi Reich's
commissioner, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, began to align the Dutch state with
the economic and social policies of the Nazi regime.
Dutch citizens had
to do forced labor, the concentration camps Westerbork and Vught were
set up, and the 10 systematic extermination of Jews began.
7 Meeting of the Dutch National Socialist
movement led by Anton Adriaan
Mussert, 1941
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8 Anti-Semitic caricature from the
Netherlands, 1939
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10 Official sign during the German occupation
of Holland reads: "No
admittance for Jews!",
1941
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While some
volunteer 9 Dutch SS divisions formed and others collaborated, a
resistance movement that fought the regime with raids and acts of
sabotage also established itself.
9 Physical examination of volunteers for the
Dutch SS divisions, 1940
In September 1944, the Allies reached
the Netherlands, and 11 liberated it on May 5,1945.
The Dutch East
Indian colony, occupied by the Japanese in 1942, was returned
after the war.
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11 US forces liberate the Netherlands, 1945
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The Bombardment of Rotterdam
Like Guernica, Coventry, and Dresden, the Dutch city of Rotterdam stands
as a symbol of the terror of modern air warfare against civilian
populations. During the German Luftwaffe air raid on May 14,1940, large
parts of the city were completely destroyed, around 78,000 people were
made homeless, and 90opeople were killed.
The city center of Rotterdam, flattened except
for the church of
St. Laurentius, 1940
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Ossip
Zadkine
The City Destroyed
1947-1953
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see also collection:
Ossip
Zadkine
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