Category Archives: Dutch Royal Family

A German in the Dutch Army in World War II

The picture above was taken on 30 October 1941. It is clear to me that it was taken for propaganda purposes. It is Prince Bernhard, who was the husband of the Dutch Crown Princess, handing Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands a check for the purchase of torpedo boats.

Prince Bernhard married Princess Juliana in The Hague on 7 January 1937. Earlier, Bernhard had been granted Dutch citizenship. He was a German-born nobleman.He was the elder son of Prince Bernhard von Lippe and Baroness Armgard von Sierstorpff-Cramm

He had been a member of the “Reiter-SS,” a mounted unit of the SS and had joined the Nazi party before the war. He later also joined the National Socialist Motor Corps.

Various members of his family and friends were aligned with the Nazis before the second world war, and a number of them attended the royal wedding. Protocol demanded that the prospective Prince-Consort be invited to an audience with his head of state, who at the time was Adolf Hitler. Hitler gave an account of the conversation he had with Bernhard in his Tischgespräche (Table Conversations). This book was a collection of monologues, remarks, and speeches Hitler gave during lunch or dinner to those he had invited.

Bernard cut off relations with those members of his family who were enthusiastic Nazis. As a sign of his “Dutchness”, near the end of the war, he spoke only Dutch when negotiating the surrender of German forces in the Netherlands.

After taking his family to safety in England (May 12, 1940), he immediately returned to lead Dutch troops in battle against the Germans; after the Dutch Army surrendered on May 14, 1940, he fled to England with the remnants of his troops.

According to Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, Soldier of Orange, “For Bernhard, the Prince of the Netherlands, the war was a frustrating business. Born a German, he had married Queen Wilhelmina’s only child, Princess Juliana. In due time made a conscious and meaningful transition of loyalties to his new homeland, because of the doubts about his background, initially invoked among some Britons, he longed more than anyone for a chance to get at Holland’s aggressors.”

After being appointed, in August 1940, a captain in the Dutch navy and a colonel in the army, Prince Bernhard assumed increased responsibilities and, by 1944, as commander of the Netherlands Forces of the Interior, he directed all Dutch armed forces. Also serving as a Dutch liaison officer with the British armed forces, Bernhard became a pilot and flew with the Royal Air Force (1942–44).

In 1944 Queen Wilhelmina appointed him Supreme Commander of the Netherlands Armed Forces and the Netherlands Forces of the Interior (the military resistance). In September 1945 the Prince was honourably discharged from these posts and, at the same time, appointed Inspector-General of the Royal Netherlands Army. For his services during the Second World War, Prince Bernhard was awarded the highest military decoration – the Cross of Commander of the Military Order of William – in 1946. For his achievements as a pilot on active service, he received the Flying Cross. In 1984 he was awarded the Resistance Cross.

The role of his mother-in-law during the war was to say at least questionable. On May 4 2020, the current Dutch King Willem Alexander acknowledged that his grandmother could and should have done more for the Dutch citizens, although he did not say it directly he was clearly implying the treatment of the Dutch Jews.

“Fellow people felt abandoned, insufficiently heard, insufficiently supported, if only with words. Also from London, also by my great-grandmother, still steadfast and fierce in her resistance. It is something that will not let me go.”

sources

https://www.royal-house.nl/members-royal-house/in-memoriam/prince-bernhard/public-appointments

https://www.trouw.nl/binnenland/over-het-zwijgen-van-wilhelmina-wat-de-koning-bedoelde-met-de-uitspraak-over-zijn-overgrootmoeder~be544078/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ie%2F

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=Prins%20Bernard&rows=1&page=2

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bernhard-prince-of-the-Netherlands-prince-of-Lippe-Biesterfeld

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Marie Davidson-Wallach murdered April 9,1945.

Marie Davidson-Wallach was one of the 8 Dutch Jews who were murdered on April 9, 1945. Now some people will dispute this . They will say that she probably just died because of disease our malnourishment. The fact is that she was forcibly taken from her house, transported to more then one camp, against her will where she eventually died in one of them, to me that makes it murder.

What makes it even sadder is that so little is know about Marie, but the thing that drew my attention to her is the notification of the Red Cross.

It says: “We have been advised by our Lisbon Delegate that the parcel(s) addresses as under in your behalf has/have been returned owing to the addressee(s) having gone away without leaving a new address .

As the content of the parcel, on its receipt in Lisbon were found, owing to its length of time in transit, to be not fit anymore for consumption, we regret we are unable to make you any allowance in this instance”

I don’t know the date of the document but it is reasonable to assume it was sent, while the Dutch Royal family were still in exile in the UK , because it was issued by the Netherland Red Cross with then crown princess HRH Juliana as president of the organisation.

One might think that the notification is a fair note, but it is not. The address mentioned ,Zuider Amstellaan 57 huis, Amsterdam, was the address of Marie’s parents. The note says ‘having gone away without leaving a new address’ who have wrote that must have known that they were forced out of their house, they did not leave voluntarily.

Marie married Jaap Davidson on March 31,1942 . The marriage ceremony took place at Marie’s parents’ house. There was no party or reception.

On September 4,1944 Marie was deported to Theresiënstadt. I am not sure if she had been in a transit camp like Westerbork prior to that, but it is safe to presume she had. On the transport there were another 653 people , Walter Suskind, a German Jew who helped about 600 Jewish children escape the Holocaust, was one of them.

I don’t know when Marie was deported to Bergen Belsen, but it is there were she found her untimely death on April 9,1945 by an evil regime that had not deemed her worthy to live.

She was born in Amsterdam, on the 8th of February 1920, she was aged 25 when she died.

I don’t know what happened to her husband, but I know her parents survived the war.

sources

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/153799/marie-davidson-wallach

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/tijdlijn/Marie-Davidson-Wallach/02/32507

Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

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Royal Gas proof Baby Buggies.

1.-Gasvrije-kinderwagen1

As the threat of war increased in Europe in August 1939, the Dutch army was placed at a heightened state of alertness. In early 1940, as a precautionary measure, the firm of Kiekens built two gasproof baby buggies as protection against the possibility of a poisonous attack. This one for the then two-year-old Dutch Princess Beatrix and another for her younger sister Princess Irene.

1.-beneden-NIOD-944182

On 12 May, two days after the German invasion, Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard fled with their two baby daughters to the harbour town of IJmuiden ,in the Netherlands, in a bulletproof car An English warship was waiting there to take them to safety. A day later, Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch government also arrived safely ashore in Great Britain. The gasproof buggies remained behind in the Netherlands.

Royal Pram Pusher

gasVrIje kInderWagen