Spectacular colorized film of the beginning of the German occupation of The Netherlands during WW-II

In this

film

I take you to the

beginning

of World War II, when the Germans launched a brutal and aggressive attack on the Netherlands in early May 1940. The

film

focuses on the hectic days during which the country preparing for The war is devastated. The Dutch government subsequently capitulated and the Germans took control of the country. During 1939 it became clear that the Netherlands probably could not remain neutral in a possible new world war as it did during the First World War. Therefore, preparations have been made to defend the country. Here we see a train preparing to serve the army hospital train.

The Dutch population is informed how to protect themselves against air raids. Important buildings are protected with sandbags. Shelters are dug for the population in case of enemy attacks. On August 28, 1939, the Dutch government announces general mobilization. Women replace soldiers. A card system for food rations is established. Ships are requisitioned to transport soldiers and military equipment. Dutch ports are closely watched by the army and the navy actively patrols the Dutch coast. Dutch troops are on high alert. On May 10, 1940, the German army crossed the border into the Netherlands. The equipped and prepared Dutch army resists the attack. Queen Wilhelmina is attacked by General Winkelman to flee to England to avoid capture.

On May 12, the royal family, consisting of Queen Wilhelmina, her daughter Juliana with her husband Prince Bernard, and her two. Her children, Beatrix and Irene, flee the port of IJmuiden with the HMS Hereward to Harwich. There it is stated that Wilhemina did not know that the ship was heading to England. Some Dutch people criticized the queen and called her a coward, but during her

occupation

they abandoned her. The queen became an important symbol of the fight against Nazi Germany. Her broadcasts on Radio Oranje from London helped keep morale high among the Dutch population. To this day, a part of the Dutch population still considers that Wilhelmina acted like a coward by deciding to flee.

In the early afternoon of May 14, 1940, at around 1:27 p.m., the German air force carried out a massive bombing raid on Rotterdam. 90 Heinkel 111 bombers from the Kampf 54 Tottenkopf squadron took part in the attack. died and around 80 percent of the old city center was completely destroyed. No less than 78,000 people were left homeless. On the afternoon of that terrible day, the buildings were still on fire, like here the "Plan-C" building. The city burned for days. When the Germans threatened to bomb other Dutch cities, such as Utrecht and Amsterdam, and also gave them an ultimatum. , the government decided to capitulate a day later, General Henri Winkelmann signed the Declaration of Capitulation in the presence of German General George Von.

Kuchler, as the person in charge, the inhabitants of Rotterdam began clearing the rubble in the following days. Unfortunately, the city council decided to build a completely new city center. Several buildings in the city were lightly damaged and could have been saved rather than torn down. of an arid landscape as seen here The only building that remained more or less standing was the Laurens Church. On May 30, 1940, a sober memorial meeting for the Dutch and German soldiers who had died there took place at the Crooswijk cemetery. After the battle of Rotterdam there were no more commemorations. Representatives of the various departments of the Dutch army were present, as well as the council of the mayor and councilors of Rotterdam, Colonel Peter Scharoo, commander of the Rotterdam garrison. the delegations The German army was present with a detachment.

Initially the graves were marked with simple white wooden crosses with the name and military unit of the deceased. This joint commemoration of both armies is, to say the least, notable. A monument was erected, as can be seen here. Here we see the NSKK, the National Socialist Kraftfahr Corps, entering the cities of The Hague, Amsterdam and Haarlem respectively. The NSKK was a paramilitary unit within the NSDAP, the National Socialist German Workers' Party. In Germany, the NSKK consisted of several so-called "Motorgruppen", motorized corps that largely performed logistical and other tasks for the Wehrmacht. In 1940, the commander of the army in Belgium and Holland, General Alexander van Falkenhausen, officially transferred the government of the Netherlands from the Wehrmacht to the Austrian Arthur Seys Inquart.

He was originally a Nazi lawyer and politician. Here we witness part of it. The ceremony in the Ridderzaal in The Hague, where he takes office as Reich Commissar or expresses his opinions, is furious. On July 15, 1940, the so-called Order Service began to reorganize its work in the country. a military structure and was led by a Dutch army major, who we see here as his Order Service addresses the troops. Social life is also

beginning

to return. The Dutch population is trying to recover the typical Dutch coexistence before the war. Due to the curfew At the beginning of World War II, the Dutch National Socialist movement NSB was on the rise: a kind of "Holland First" party, founded in 1931, which joined forces with the German occupiers as a collaborative party led by the engineer Anton Mussert.

He assumed that he could govern the country politically as an independent part of the new Third Reich. During World War II, around 1943, more than 101,000 people were members of this authoritarian and anti-democratic NSB movement. Over the course of World War II, the NSB became increasingly radical, fascist, and anti-Semitic. During the war, NSB members maintained the stigma of "Wrong" throughout the war. These are interesting images of a parade of the NSB Resilience Department (WA) marching on Damrak and Dam Square in Amsterdam on November 9, 1940. It is quite surprising to see. How many spectators lined the route for NSB's "Houzee" salute? it was the militarized unit of the NSB, or "scum and scum in uniform." They were called "black shirts" and were extremely violent against Jews.

On May 1, 1941, Anton Mussert gave this speech: Part 1 of our series on the. The Netherlands in wartime ends here. In future episodes I will delve into this period in the Netherlands. You will have noticed a much higher quality in the video enhancement and especially in the colorization. This is the result of a new coloring method in which the AI ​​is fed manually colored reference frames. The AI ​​then tries to keep track of the objects in the reference frames. Finally, here is a slideshow of almost all the manually created colored reference frames. Thanks for watching!