van Gogh – History of Sorts

Propaganda & Art

I believe that the most powerful weapon the Nazis had during World War II was its propaganda machine. Other countries used propaganda, but not as effectively as the Nazis. Perhaps critical thinking had not been eradicated or banned elsewhere.

The Nazis often used art to spread their message. Some of their posters remind me of today’s memes. The connection between art and propaganda was probably the strongest in the Netherlands, known for its art and artists.

The art piece at the start of this article is from the Exhibition Art of the Front collection—displayed at the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum from 21 January–21 February 1943.

The Nazis also set up several charities, not for the betterment of the population, but really as a means of propaganda. Winning hearts and minds was essential for the Nazis. Again, art and fancy posters played an important part in this, to relay the message.

Relief work Visual arts. Nederlandsche Volksdienst (Dutch People Service) in collaboration with the Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer (Dutch Chamber of Culture). Exhibition.

A wall with posters, most likely in Amsterdam from the autumn of 1941. It includes the V-Action poster and calls for enlistment in the SS or the Volunteer Legion. One of the posters was for the exhibition in the Rijksmuseum concerning Westphalian Art of the Present.

German propaganda. Posters from the Netherlands Winter Aid Foundation said, “Your fellow citizens expect you to do your duty,” doesn’t mention the Nazis or the occupiers—but fellow citizens.

Propaganda against Bolshevism “Bolshevism is murder!” It didn’t just instil fear of loss of life, but also destruction of religion.

The NSB (Dutch Nazi Party) was intensively involved in propaganda. Posters and placards flooded the Netherlands, both before and during the war.

Propaganda poster from the NSB Photo Service “Do you want the rule of egoism? That is the freedom to use people and the community for your own personal interests or do you want everyone to have the obligation to serve people and the community? Then support National Socialism.”

Aimed at Railway Workers “Strike only brings misery to your own people!”

Aside from the art used in propaganda, the Nazis also decided an ample number of Dutch artists to be murdered.

Portrait, possible of hidden or captured Jews. (Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum)

Max van Dam
Max van Dam was the son of Aron van Dam and Johanna van Dam née Leviticus. Both his parents were Jewish. He grew up in a socialist environment. His father was a certified meat inspector who became the director of the cooperative store De Dageraad, a literal translation of The Dawn, in Winterswijk, where he was on the town council for the Dutch Social Democratic Workers’ Party (SDAP). Max received art training in Amsterdam and Antwerp and attended Isidoor Opsomer’s Academy of Fine Arts.

During the war, Max van Dam went into hiding. He tried to flee to Switzerland but was captured in France and deported to Sobibor by way of the Drancy Interment Camp. During his time in the two camps, Max van Dam continued to produce engravings and paint portraits.

In Sobibor, Max was one of the ‘lucky’ ones who were not immediately murdered. He had to do paintings for the SS. The SS man Karl Frenzel testified in 1983, “He did not have to stand for roll call, and his food was brought to him by fellow prisoners. I asked him to do paintings for the SS canteen, which would not remind us of the camp or the war, they were exclusively landscapes. There was also a painting made by Van Dam of FiFi, Bauer’s dog.” Frenzel further stated, ”Van Dam had been killed in the revolt and that the paintings in the staff quarters of Sobibor were destroyed at the same time.”

The details and exact date of Van Dam’s death remain unclear. Survivors have indicated that he was killed shortly after completing his last commissioned painting in September 1943. Jules Schelvis noted that Frenzel’s assertion that Van Dam was killed in the revolt may have been self-serving. Schelvis concluded this based on statements by Alexander Pechersky, who was emphatic in his declarations never to have met Van Dam because the painter had already been killed prior to his own arrival in Sobibor on 23 September 1943.

Theodoor van Gogh
Although Theodoor van Gogh was not an artist himself, he was the great-nephew of one of the most famous artists of all time—Vincent van Gogh.

Theodoor (Theo) van Gogh was born in Amsterdam. He was the uncle of the director, columnist, and opinion maker Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in 2004. Theodoor began studying economics at Amsterdam University in 1941, where joined a student resistance organisation.

He was active in the resistance on many fronts, as were many other members of his Corps fraternity. In 1943, they protested, among other things, against having to sign the so-called declaration of loyalty, which meant that you would not do anything against the Germans. If you refused to sign, you could not continue your studies. On 6 May 1943, those who had not signed had to report for the Arbeitseinsatz in Germany. Theo did not do this. He immediately helped Jews, arranged hiding places and provided identity cards, ration cards, food, etc., for people in hiding in collaboration with, among others, the Student Resistance. He supported the Domestic Armed Forces and was the central figure for a courier service. He also offered help to prisoners and succeeded in getting a number released. At the end of 1944, he housed the resistance newspaper, Het Parool, from his father’s office, and was involved in the resistance newspaper, Ons Volk. He also committed more acts of resistance, about which less has become known. Theo was arrested twice, once during a raid in 1943 and again at a train check-in in 1944. In both cases, his father’s influence was able to have him released after a few months from Camp Vught and Camp Amersfoort, respectively. An extensive group of students and others worked with him and for him. During a raid on his home on 1 March 1945, he, with many others, was arrested for the attack on SS commander Hanns Rauter.

As a reprisal for the attack, on 8 March, the Nazis executed 263 political prisoners, including Theodoor at age 24, by a firing squad in southeast Amsterdam. The spot became known as Fusilladeplaats (execution place).

Calendar design for November, drawing, 1930–31: “On wings of storm winter approaches.”

Willem Arondéus
Willem Arondéus was a Dutch artist and author who joined the Dutch anti-Nazi resistance movement during World War II. He participated in the bombing of the Amsterdam public records office to hinder the Nazi German effort to identify Dutch Jews and others wanted by the Gestapo. Arondéus was caught and executed soon after his arrest. Yad Vashem recognized Arondéus as Righteous Among the Nations.

When Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands during World War II, Arondéus became a member of the Dutch resistance movement. He used his artistic skills to forge false identity papers and other documents to help people escape persecution.

With a small group of confidants from the art world, including Gerrit van der Veen and cellist Frieda Belinfante, Arondéus started in 1942 by counterfeiting identity cards for Jewish people in hiding so that they could perhaps survive the war without the “J” on their identity cards. A plan was devised to blow up this register to prevent the occupier from checking the numbers of the forged identity cards in the administration of the Amsterdam population register.

Under the leadership of Willem Arondéus and Gerrit van der Veen, the resistance group committed an attack on this population register on the night of 27 March 1943. A few days later, Arondéus and almost everyone else involved were arrested. On 1 July 1943, 12 resistance fighters, including Arondéus, were shot dead in the dunes near Overveen.

Sources

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/tijdlijn/Theodoor-van-Gogh/02/201255

https://oorlogsgravenstichting.nl/personen/201255/theodoor-van-gogh

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2020/05/22/executed-by-the-nazis-the-story-of-vincent-van-goghs-brave-great-nephew

https://www.sobiborinterviews.nl/en/sobibor-sketches/maxvandam

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=propaganda&rows=25&page=1

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=kunst&rows=25&page=1

https://www.noord-holland.nl/Bestuur/Provinciale_Staten/Willem_Arondeuslezing

Willem Arondeus: The Gay Men That Led The Dutch Resistance

https://www.europeana.eu/en/blog/willem-arondeus

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Van Gogh playing it by ear

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Pardon the pun in the title but I couldn’t resist.

On December 23 1888, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, suffering from severe depression, cut off the lower part of his left ear with a razor while staying in Arles, France.He later documented the event in a painting titled Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear.

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Van Gogh and Gauguin visited Montpellier in December 1888, where they saw works by Courbet and Delacroix in the Musée Fabre.Their relationship began to deteriorate; Van Gogh admired Gauguin and wanted to be treated as his equal, but Gauguin was arrogant and domineering, which frustrated Van Gogh. They often quarrelled; Van Gogh increasingly feared that Gauguin was going to desert him, and the situation, which Van Gogh described as one of “excessive tension”, rapidly headed towards crisis point.

The official version about van Gogh’s legendary act of self-harm usually goes that the disturbed Dutch painter severed his left ear lobe with a razor blade in a fit of lunacy after he had a row with Gauguin one evening shortly before Christmas 1888.

Bleeding heavily, van Gogh then wrapped it in cloth, walked to a nearby bordello and presented the severed ear to a prostitute, who fainted when he handed it to her.

He then went home to sleep in a blood-drenched bed, where he almost bled to death, before police, alerted by the prostitute, found him the next morning.

He was unconscious and immediately taken to the local hospital, where he asked to see his friend Gauguin when he woke up, but Gauguin refused to see him.

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However rumours have it the Vincent van Gogh may have made up the whole story to protect his friend Gauguin, a keen fencer, who actually lopped it off with a sword during a heated argument.

Some historians say that the real version of events has never surfaced because the two men both kept a “pact of silence” – Gauguin to avoid prosecution.

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The Murder of Theo van Gogh

theo_van_gogh Today marks the 16th anniversary of the murder of Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam.

Police forensic experts search for clues

Theodoor “Theo” van Gogh (23 July 1957 – 2 November 2004) was a Dutch film director, film producer, television director, television producer, television presenter, screenwriter, actor, critic and author.

Theo van Gogh was born on 23 July 1957 in The Hague, Netherlands to Anneke and Johan van Gogh. His father served in the Dutch secret service (‘AIVD’, then called ‘BVD’). Theo van Gogh was the great-grandson of Theo van Gogh, the brother of painter Vincent van Gogh

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Van Gogh worked with the Somali-born writer and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the short film Submission (2004), which criticized the treatment of women in Islam.

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On 2 November 2004, Van Gogh was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim. The last film Van Gogh had completed before his death, 06/05, was a fictional exploration of the assassination of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn.

Working from a script written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Van Gogh created the 10-minute short film Submission. The movie deals with violence against women in some Islamic societies; it tells the stories, using visual shock tactics, of four abused Muslim women. The title, Submission, is a translation of the word “Islam” into English. In the film, women’s naked bodies, with texts from the Qur’an written on them in henna, in an allusion to traditional wedding rituals in some cultures, are veiled with semi-transparent shrouds as the women kneel in prayer, telling their stories as if they are speaking to Allah.

In August 2004, after the movie’s broadcast on Dutch public TV, the newspaper De Volkskrant reported that the journalist Francisco van Jole had accused Hirsi Ali and Van Gogh of plagiarism, saying that they had appropriated the ideas of Iranian-American video artist Shirin Neshat, whose work used Arabic text projected onto bodies.

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Following the broadcast, both Van Gogh and Hirsi Ali received death threats. Van Gogh did not take the threats seriously and refused any protection. According to Hirsi Ali, he said, “Nobody kills the village idiot”, a term he frequently used about himself.

Van Gogh was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri while cycling to work on 2 November 2004 at about 9 o’clock in the morning, in front of the Amsterdam East borough office (stadsdeelkantoor), on the corner of the Linnaeusstraat and Tweede Oosterparkstraat.

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The killer shot Van Gogh eight times with an HS2000 handgun. Bouyeri was also on a bicycle and fired several bullets, hitting Van Gogh and two bystanders.

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Wounded, Van Gogh ran to the other side of the road and fell to the ground on the cycle lane. According to eyewitnesses, Van Gogh’s last words were “Don’t do it, don’t do it.” or “Have mercy, have mercy, don’t do it, don’t do it.”Bouyeri walked up to Van Gogh, who was on the ground, and calmly shot him several more times at close range.

Bouyeri cut Van Gogh’s throat with a large knife and tried to decapitate him, after which he stabbed the knife deep into Van Gogh’s chest, reaching his spinal cord. He attached a note to the body with a smaller knife. Van Gogh died on the spot.The two knives were left implanted. The note was addressed to and contained a death threat to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who went into hiding. It also threatened Western countries and Jews, and referred to ideologies of the Egyptian organization Takfir wal-Hijra.

The killer, Mohammed Bouyeri, a 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan citizen, was apprehended by police after a chase, during which he was shot in the leg. Authorities have alleged that Bouyeri has terrorist ties with the Dutch Islamist Hofstad Network. He was charged with the attempted murder of several police officers and bystanders, illegal possession of a firearm, and conspiring to murder others, including Hirsi Ali. He was convicted at trial on 26 July 2005 and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

In 1995, Mohammed Bouyeri finished his secondary education and subsequently went on to the “Nyenrode College ” in Diemen. He changed his major several times and left after five years without obtaining a degree.

A second generation migrant from Morocco, Bouyeri used the pen name “Abu Zubair” for writing and translating. On the Internet he often posted letters and sent e-mail under this name.

At an early age he was known to the police as a member of a group of Moroccan “problem-youth”. For a while he worked as a volunteer at Eigenwijks, a neighbourhood organization in the Slotervaart suburb of Amsterdam. He started to radicalize shortly after his mother died and his father re-married in the fall of 2003. The September 11 attacks and the war in Iraq contributed to his radicalization.

He started to live according to strict Islamic rules. As a result he could perform fewer and fewer tasks at Eigenwijks. For example, he refused to serve alcohol and did not want to be present at activities attended by both women and men. Finally, he put an end to his activities at Eigenwijks altogether.

He grew a beard and began to wear a djellaba.

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He frequently visited the El Tawheed mosque where he met other radical Muslims, among whom were suspected terrorist . With them he is said to have formed the Hofstad Network, a Dutch terrorist cell.

He claims to have murdered van Gogh to fulfill his duty as a Muslim. Serving as witness in another court case involving the Hofstad group in May 2007, Bouyeri for the time expressed in more depth his thoughts regarding Islam. Here he said that armed Jihad was the only option of Muslims in the Netherlands and that democracy was always a violation of Islam because laws cannot be produced by humans but only by Allah

The murder sparked a violent storm of outrage and grief throughout the Netherlands. Flowers, notes, drawings and other expressions of mourning were left at the scene of the murder.

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