LITERATURE PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE in Hitler's coming to power in Germany. Not only did he present his own ideology in the form of a book, Mein Kampf (1925), but several right-wing publishing houses — those Gary D. Stark would later call the “Entrepreneurs of Ideology” — contributed substantially to the popularization of National Socialist ideology in Germany.

In 1935 Mussolini presented books and guns as the fundamental symbols of the fascist state. Hence the famous expression “Libro e Moschetto” (Book and Musket). The propaganda of the NSDAP (the Nazi Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei) interpreted the importance of literature in a similar way. Joseph Goebbels replaced the Italian gun with a German sword and inaugurated the German book fair of 1935 with the title “Das Buch, ein Schwert des Geistes” (The Book, a Sword of the Spirit). This militant perspective on the role of literature under the New Order was to be exported to the occupied Netherlands.

The Netherlands and the New Order

Soon after the surrender of the Dutch army, which was accelerated by the devastating bombardment of Rotterdam on 14 May 1940, control over the Netherlands passed from a military to a civilian governor — unlike the south of France, Denmark, and Norway, which had their own (puppet) governments, or Belgium and the north of France, which remained under military control.

This civilian government was headed by the Austrian Arthur Seyss-Inquart, who was appointed by Hitler as Reichskommissar (High Commissioner) for the Occupied Netherlands.