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3. Germanic Brothers
- University of Nebraska Press
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3 Germanic Brothers The Dutch and the Germanization of the Occupied East G E R A L D I E N V O N F R I J T A G D R A B B E K Ü N Z E L In the summer of 1942, less than three years after the outbreak of the Second World War, German rule was established in a substantial part of Europe. Nazi Germany hadconsiderablyenlargeditsterritorybyincorporatingAustriaand largeborderareas.FromtheAtlanticOceantotheCaucasus,Germansgoverned occupied Europe. Leading German planners regarded the occupied regions in theEast(Poland,theBalticStates,Ukraine,Belorussia,andRussia)asareasfit forGermanization.Essentially,Germanizationmeantcreatinganempireruled byGermanicpeopleoverallothers—anempirebasedon“race”and“blood”—in whichtherewas,attheverymost,asubordinateplaceforonlyafractionofthe indigenousSlavicpopulationandcertainlynoneforthemillionsofJews.Italso meant the transfer of people from “Germanic” offspring to this area. Since the collapse of the Communist bloc and the subsequent opening of archives,therehasbeensubstantialacademicinterestinthepolicyofGermanization . The general trend in recent historiography has been to place Germanizationinabroaderhistoricalperspective .SomestudiesassociateGermanization withtheriseofstateengineering,planning,andpopulationpolicy,whileothers compare it either with past imperialist projects or specific instances of ethnic 84 G E R A L D I E N V O N F R I J T A G D R A B B E K Ü N Z E L cleansing.1 Other scholars, by contrast, concentrate on the longer history of German colonial aspirations toward this part of Europe.2 Remarkably, many recent studies omit the involvement of those whom the NazisconsideredasfellowGermanicpeoplesinthecolonizationproject.Inthe occupied Netherlands, however, German authorities made serious efforts to shiftasubstantialsegmentoftheDutchpopulationtotheEastandtoestablish Dutch colonies along the way. In order to attract volunteers and to coordinate settlers’employmentintheGermanReichCommissariatsOstlandandUkraine (ReichskommissariatOstland/Ukraine),theoccupationauthoritieslauncheda seriesofpropagandacampaignsandestablishedseveralstateagencies.Between November 1941 and July 1944 over five thousand Dutch settled in Belorussia, the Baltic States, and Ukraine. They were offered a year’s contract, but the prospect of permanent settlement was held out to them too. In the press they were often referred to as “pioneers.” The Dutch involvement in the Germanization project raises several important issues. Specifically, this chapter engages with the question of whether the Dutch—leaders,fellowtravelers,andpioneersalike—hadmotivationssimilar tothoseoftheirGermancomradesandwhethertheyconsideredthemselvesto be “of kindred blood” and members of the same Germanic “master race” and thereforetherightfulrulersoftheoccupiedEast.GermanideasabouttheDutch are equally relevant to this discussion: where on the Nazi racial curve did the Dutch stand, and why did German authorities seek the Dutch contribution in the first place? Inordertocomprehensivelyanswerthesequestions,thischapterbeginsthe story in the years leading up to the outbreak of war, examining, in particular, developments in the fields of ethnology and folklore in prewar Dutch society. This chapter asserts that the advancement of racial thought and, more specifically , the rediscovery of a supposedly Germanic descent not only laid the groundwork for Dutch academic collaboration in Nazi racial policy but also paved the way for Dutch participation in the Germanization project. Racial Science in the Netherlands Before the Second World War Atfirstglance,thehistoryofracialscienceintheNetherlandsseemstohavebeen ahistoryofdeviation.WhereasracialsciencemadeitsappearanceinEuropean academia in the second half of the nineteenth century, it was hardly noticed [54.221.26.137] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 10:08 GMT) Germanic Brothers 85 in the Netherlands. The reception of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1872) was lukewarm, and it took more than six years before the former book was translated into Dutch. It seems plausible to explain this Dutch reaction by the profoundly religious character of Dutch society.PiousChristians,numerousandinfluentialinnineteenth-centuryHolland , disagreed with Darwin’s ideas on evolution by natural selection.3 In several European countries and in the United States eugenics gained influence in academic circles before the turn of the century. Scientists and physicians, convinced of the direct link between social behavior and physical condition, were determined to increase the numbers of those deemed to be of “valuablehereditarymaterial”andreducetheproportionofthoseofless“valuable ” genetic stock. The question was, in other words, whether the process of natural selection could, and should, be encouraged by state intervention. In a numberofcountrieseugenicsmovementsgainedapoliticalfoothold.Insome Scandinaviancountries,forexample,thecentralgovernmentdecidedtosterilize citizens who were considered “of lesser value.”4 In Nazi Germany eugenics eventually led to the killing of hundreds of thousands of “unwanted” people.5 Neither of these developments occurred in the Netherlands. Debates on improving the human stock began in the Netherlands decades after they had proliferated elsewhere in Europe and the United States. The number of proponents of eugenics was, and would remain, relatively small. Moreover, the Dutch state was not inclined to intervene in what was understood to be the private domain of its citizens. Suggested measures such as the introduction of anobligatorymedicalinspectionofpeoplewhointendedto getmarriednever became actual policy.6 Toadegree,DutchadvocatesofeugenicsenviedtheirGermancounterparts who were profiting from 1933 onward from the Nazi regime’s institutional support .However,themajorityofDutchcondemnedtheactualNazipolicyofsocalled...