[ II ]
INTRODUCTION TO SPEECH SEYS INQUART.
The speech from the Gouvernor (Rijkscommisaris) on Wednesday March 12 in the Concert Gebouw in Amsterdam is, because of several reasons a first rate classical document of our time.
In the first place because it shows the Dutch people as in a mirror its history and present situation, its power and shortcomings and also shows the possibilities to take its own future in its hands. It gives our people,that since May 1940 still tries to get a positive view, a clear vision with regard to the interior development and our relation to the kinsfolk [Sic.!?]. It throws light on the questions of to-day,the agrarian and social problem, the problem of the Jews, Winter help, the teaching of the German language in our schools, the younger generation in the Universities and the Forced Labor.
The speech forces us to self-knowledge and works on everyone who opens himself, with a liberating force. The speech is severe but righteous and always constructive.
Furthermore is the speech important, because it does not come from a Dutchman, but is given by a German-a sign that an European society with a complete new spirit is coming.
That precisely a German shows us that mirror,points to a new situation in the historical experiences of our people,which cannot be compared with those of the past.
The Netherlands once fought Spain, France, England-all powers who tried to restrict our right to exist on land and on the sea, with as a result:continuous chaos in Europe.
The 5-day war with the "Third State" (Das Dritte Reich) has a different meaning. The foreign power did not come to destroy our independence, but to associate it. This "war" was no "war" but a revolution under the banner of an idea.
The old society of people of Europe was democratic; a loose collection of constantly each other fighting people.
The new Europe is national-socialistic: here lives the idea of a leader and the leader is that power which had initiative for constructive development and who formulates most powerful the idea of justice and implements it. In this Europe the Netherlands is a working organism.
The Dutch people may find in this, by foreign hands held mirror, the self-reflection regarding its past, present and future which it needs so urgently. It can become a free and happy people as soon as it does not allow itself to be pressed down any longer by the present necessary restrictions, but asks itself: "What is my task in the 20th Century?"
[ III ]
SPEECH BY SEYSS INQUART.
Members of the Party and Comrads.
About two weeks ago Amsterdam and a few other cities in the province were the stage of rioting, directed against the public order and the safety of public life. True enough Amsterdam is the site where, not only because of the structure of the social relations of its inhabitants, but also because the make-up of the society itself, there often was unrest which made it necessary for those responsible for maintaining order to react in a radical manner; thus such unrest and strikes cannot be considered as unusual. In the present case have, without a doubt, those forces, and again above all the Jews who after all started this war of destruction against the German people, have a hand in the game and a part of the, up till now, orderly behaving population incited and lead on. Because of this reason it was necessary to break this resistance with the sharpest measures.
I hope that the Dutch people has learned from the experience of the last days, how relentless the occupying forces know how to do their job and maintain their right. I hope that the Dutch people will not allow itself to be seduced by elements, foreign to country and people. We will be, in the future, if necessary be even harder. Especially I warn not to insult the German Army and its members.
The instructions given by the commander of the army are unequivocal and radical. The Dutch people must understand that in a, because of war, occupied country a strike and also a shut-out is not allowed in any case, yes totally unthinkable and always must be considered as a violation against the order as maintained by the occupying forces.
If in the future a civil servant or employe goes on a strike, he then destroys his lifehood and may be his existence.
In the meantime we have created with gouvernment regulations an protection against unwarranted lay-offs and a right on the control of the wage structure, even without specific complaints of the worker involved, which will make it possible to keep an eye on the justified rights of the workers and to safeguard them; in so far as this is possible under the present circumstances. In particular we will in this way clean up the unacceptable and a-social differences in wages and allow increases where the social needs of the labor force demands this and where ever they are possible according to the present economic situation
The strict prohibition to strike does therefore not mean an impediment of the basic needs of the worker but is a measure which, being of an eminent importance for the preservation of order in the occupied territories,will be maintained under all circumstances.
At the moment that the German instances, for the maintaining of the order took action, the rioting stopped. Those ringleaders who are found guilty will, depending on the circumstances, be condemned by the military court to a stiff, inevitable but well deserved punishment. But those who according the nature of this country are also responsible for the forming of the public opinion, must be reminded by drastic measures that here the order, as demanded by the occupying forces, must be maintained under all circumstances and that these occupying forces are quite capable to strike the atmosphere which in fact stirs up the acts of resistance.
The decision regarding the collection of fines will have the consequence that in all probability the great number of those, who face with an open mind the new shape things are getting into and who stuck to this view will only in rare cases affect them; although it is possible to take care of exceptions. This episode in the history of the occupation is closed. The normal conditions for the occupational forces returned. The determination with which those forces handled the situation is clear.
I will use this occasion now to face you, party members and comrades, to explain what is the business at hand, because the force of our bayonets is mainly meant to be used against the enemy from outside. However in the territory which we have to govern, do we make ourselves felt mainly through the force of our ideas that we represent and through the conviction which comes through when we enumerate our ideas. Therefore I come specially to you, the party members in my jurisdiction, because you have to be my closest cooperators in the realization of the task which the Fuhrer gave me in this country. You are called to give the Dutch people, by the way you conduct yourself, an example of the national-socialistic society in the domain of the Great-Germanic society. You have to know what it is all about, which goal we have to reach and how we decide what our standpoint will be regarding the isolated events which will we presented to us.
I am happy that we have in our midst such a remarkable number of Dutch national-socialists, who in a hard and often misunderstood struggle cooperate as pioneers in the building of a new Europe and who in this community of ideas and struggles can be sure of our comradeship which cannot be broken. However I speak knowing that the rest of the Dutch people hear me too.
The Netherlands woke up from a centuries lasting dream. The Dutch saw themselves, when they woke up,faced with the one problem: Germany. Germany means, specially for the Dutch that they have to make a decision regarding the events in the world. The Netherlands is now finding out that it does not return to its quiet garden and its walled in groves. It starts to understand that the question asked of it will only get an answer from the people when it knows how to meet Germany with a really creative attitude.
Development of the historical genesis.
The condition for such an active, and consequently actions demanding, attitude is that one gets a clear idea of the foundations of such actions. Common interest and suspected contrasts from the present must find their motives and development in the history of such genesis.
We know that this Dutch people, with its make-up the same as from a great part of the German people, could be found in the tribes of Frisians, Saxonians en Franco's when the first establishment of a realm was realized in the Middle-European territory, in the Carolinean realm, already living in a community with other tribes, which are now smelted into the German people, was incorporated. And in the division treaties, which finally led to the borders between France and Germany of modern times, was that part of the Netherlands, as far as it can be the subject of my remarks, the now occupied territories, and as far as they, in those times, were wrested from the sea, as Germania Inferior in the realm of the society of this first state. That in those days armies of this state were resisted and thrown back, is not extra-ordinary for the Netherlands. Such events occurred in all other parts of the state, when those in power, either for reasons of dynasty or confession, turned against the idea of a state or when part of the population of the state got in trouble. I will not say that the Dutch people in those days did not have a special, innate nature, such as could be expected because of the substance of the race and the harsh living conditions and experiences on the coasts of the sea, just as they developed in the Eastern and Alpine reaches.
Nevertheless one can safely say that round the turn of the 16th century the Dutch people, just as all other people who were than connected in a common state, had the qualities and conditions to become, by an further corresponding development an element of the German people, in which the other tribes had already smelted.
Seeing this it tells us that the Dutch and the Germans, from the standpoint of the state, did not become one people, but that they had at their disposal the same conditions of race and thus are blood-related, capable of a still closer society
The development, started by the arrangement of the succession of Charles V in 1555, was different from that moment on. It was than that the Netherlands were handed over to the Spaniards. In the fight against the Spaniards and Catholicism the Netherlands conquered their confessional and dynastic liberty, resulting in a breaking loose from the federal bond, a bond that was already in some measure broken. One has to keep in mind that the intention of the Netherlands was not in the first place to leave the federation but to salvage their national character opposite the Spaniards and the Catholicism. And we know that Marnix van St. Allegonde as representative of the Netherlands at the diet of the realm in Worms in 1578 in a show of responsibility adjured the German rulers and tribes not to desert the Netherlands in their fight against the Spaniards and not to tolerate that these territories would be separated from the federation. It was than that the federation failed them.
Confessional and dynastic interests were prominent for the decisions of the rulers, considerations of the people and the nation didn't carry any weight.
The end of this development was the year 1648 that for the Netherlands will be a year of happy memories, when they wanted to be satisfied for ever with the, than starting retreat from the vibrating life of Europe and most of all from the middle of Europe. A year of mourning for all Germans because it was the manifest-ion of the collapse of the federal idea.
The realm of the Occident as founded and founded again by the Carolingers, Saxonians and Staufen, was based on the idea of ordening of the European territory, in which the tribes of Germania should be the exponents and guarantors of this order. Round this center of power other tribes and people assembled themselves to share in the power and with the boon of peace of this realm pursue their own happiness. This ultimately resting on selection by the people was superseded by the confessional and dynastic interest and the realm, which was supported by this idea, collapsed. With this were also cut the ties with the order and harmonic equilibrium. The fringe areas of the realm, to which since 1648 after the separation the Netherlands also belonged, were without a common center of gravity and they concentrated on their own business.
Acknowledgment of the achievements of the Netherlands.
It must be acknowledged that the people and tribes of these fringe areas-and by this I don't only mean the areas which once had been dependent on the realm, but also those which turned themselves to the center of gravity of the realm without even having been a part of this sphere of interests-from the power of their Germanic part, have done extra-ordinary things. We are reminded of the brave and brilliant campaigns of Charles XII and in the same category of appreciation the colonization of the Dutch, their achievements in building dikes and hydraulic engineering, in general shipbuilding and finally also their achievements in agriculture and horticulture. If we add to this the unparalleled Dutch art of painting, and the important achievements in science and particularly in the medical field, than arises for us, out-siders and onlookers, the picture of character and achievements which we can qualify as typical Dutch, and that this had values which we characterize as truly Dutch and which we recognize as an enrichment for the whole of the Occident and which we do not want to do without.