A commonly overlooked aspect of the Second World War is daily life in the countries the Nazis occupied. While by no means forgotten by those who had to live through it, armies didn't come face to face in these places, so the happenings in them seem forgotten most of the time. This episode of World at War is all about The Netherlands, and how the Germans imposed harsh, discriminatory policies on the Dutch people despite first saying they weren't going to. In 1940, germany invades Holland. Since the netherlands hasn't been involved in a war since Napoleonic times, the country is easily subdued. The Luftwaffe bombs the port of Rotterdam, and as german forces use holland's excellent roads to invade the rest of the country, the dutch government surrenders to spare other cities from a similar fate. The germans make it clear that because both they and the dutch belong to the same European subrace they only want them as allies against the Bolshevist threat of Soviet Russia and the warmonger Churchill. The dutch have their own fascist organization called the Nationaal Socialistische Bewging, or the National Socialist Movement in the netherlands. Founded in the prewar years as a pro nazi movement, it was the only political party allowed to exist in holland throughout most of ww2. Its leader, Anton Mussert, called on the dutch public to support Hitler as the messiah of Europe; someone who was put on earth to save the continent from the evils of communism and other left wing mindsets. Despite it being just 6 weeks after the luftwaffe attacked rotterdam, the dutch public was inspired into a frenzy, ready to stand by Hitler and make europe an ethnostate in which only those of the european race are permitted to live. Meanwhile, the NSB has some of its members elected to positions of power in the netherlands, and the nazis tighten control over most areas of the country. Seaside resorts, where people had vacationed just a few years earlier, are closed and fortified in order to make way for coastal defenses and gun emplacements. Those who resisted were either shot or put into prison. Later on, the germans throw away their promise of not imposing discriminatory policies on the dutch and tell them that all music and other forms of art they put out has to first be approved by nazi-aligned cultural guilds. Jewish composers were banned. Following in the footsteps of the French Resistance, the dutch organize an underground partisan military force that resists the germans in any way it can. They printed anti-nazi newspapers, had guns and explosives airdropped to them by the Royal Air Force, and people painted V's on the sides of buildings to signify the netherlands will be victorious one day. Propaganda minister Goebbels ran a counter-campaign stating that the V stood for german victory instead. By 1944, the allies had landed in Normandy and a small section of southern holland was freed from nazi control. The rest of the country anxiously awaited freedom, but the allies were badly beaten during Operation Market Garden later that year; one of the worst disasters of the war. The dutch start to rise up and owners of railroad companies (too timid to do anything before) decide to halt trains so the germans can't get the supplies necessary for the upcoming Battle of the Bulge. The germans retaliated by cutting off food and gas to a large section of western holland, and thousands starve or freeze to death. As the winter gets worse, the germans are forced to open emergency soup kitchens, but even this late in 1944, the liberators did not come. Like all World at War installments, this one does a perfect job of combining Laurence Olivier's narration with footage of the war, harrowing music, and interviews with those who were there to create what I consider to be the best ww2 documentary ever made. As is usually the case, the episode has many incredible stories told by those who lived in the place in question. One person says the germans captured a few resistance members one day and found out about their anti-nazi propaganda campaign originating from a newspaper they printed. The germans told him if they stop printing the paper, they won't execute the prisoners. They held a meeting and ultimately decided it was more important to keep churning out anti-nazi sentiment than to save the lives of their friends. Overall, because this program focuses on a place that is often ignored (even by those interested in ww2), I have to say it's one of the most interesting segments of the series. Just because holland was neutral didn't spare it from germany's wrath.
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