How the Netherlands treated “the enemy within”

When the Netherlands was liberated after World War Two, for some the war continued. Germans, Italians and Austrians living in the Netherlands were all viewed with active suspicion. Their fate lay in the hands of the Netherlands Property Administration Institute (NBI), a powerful post-war organisation that has since been fiercely criticised.

After the war ended, citizens of Germany, Italy, Austria and Germans from pre-war Czechoslovakia (known as Sudeten Germans) were only allowed to remain in the Netherlands subject to the approval of the NBI.

If the institute decided in their favour, they were issued with an official document declaring that they were not enemies of the state. Even if they had lived in the Netherlands for decades and were fully integrated into Dutch society, they still had to prove that they had been loyal to the Allies during the war.

Everyone from these “suspect” groups was obliged to temporarily hand over their assets to the NBI. In effect, they lost ownership of all their worldly possessions. Only once they were issued with an official declaration, were their assets returned to them.

The NBI was controversial. The Justice Minister at the time, L.A. Donker, stated in 1953 that the institute was poorly administered. A previous report by the Netherlands Court of Audit had already left the institute’s reputation in tatters.

Looting and robbery
The NBI’s duties had been determined during the war by Queen Wilhelmina and her government in exile in London. Back in the occupied Netherlands, some people had accumulated a great deal of wealth as a result of looting, robbery and misappropriation. Under a directive dating from 1944, the property and assets of traitors were to be placed under state control.

Working for the Dutch Institute for War Documentation, Lenie Bolle carried out research into the NBI and its treatment of families affiliated with the NSB, a party that collaborated with the Nazi occupier. She explains:

“The NBI was seen as a temporary organisation, but one with a vast remit. At its peak, the NBI was dealing with over 150,000 cases involving investigation, management and settlement. Not only did it deal with cases involving traitors, but it also handled the assets of citizens who did not return from the war. These affairs were handled by 2,000 executives, 20,000 administrators and a large but unspecified number of other officials.”

Money rolling in
The NBI may have been controversial, but it kept the money rolling in. After the country’s wartime ordeal, it was money to which the Dutch government believed the Netherlands was entitled. Hein Klemann, Professor of Economic History at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, confirms that the Netherlands wanted to bring in billions through the institute, money that was badly needed to rebuild the country.

It is not known exactly how much money the NBI collected. But history has shown that its approach was not always the most effective one to take.

“The economies of Germany and the Netherlands were very much interwoven before the war. The Netherlands’ post-war appropriation policy created huge problems for many companies and individuals. For example, many German skippers on Dutch waterways sailed under the Dutch flag.”

Family archives
The NBI’s files are housed in the cellars of The National Archives in The Hague. They have not been the object of much research: hardly surprising considering that none of the documents have been digitised and researchers are therefore forced to plough their way through mountains of documents.

These archives also contain data on the Mions – an Italian family – and the Schneiders – a German family. After Radio Netherlands Worldwide and daily newspaper Trouw published an article on the NBI in May 2011, members of both families contacted us.

The Mion family
The paperwork shows that members of the Mion family in Dordrecht and Tilburg were accused of collaboration. The owner of the family business in Dordrecht is said to have expressed positive opinions about Germany to various people. Yet the file also contains a letter in which the mayor of Dordrecht defends another member of the family. The testimonial did not have the desired effect: his company was confiscated and sold on to a war victim.

The case against the Tilburg branch of the family was quickly settled: they were branded wartime collaborators by the NBI. The Mions of Breda met a kinder fate: they received an official declaration that they were not enemies of the state as early as 1948. Their assets were returned to them and members of the family still live and work in Breda to this day.

The Schneider family
The fate of the Schneider family initially looked to be very different. In 1947 the German family was ordered to report to a camp in Nijmegen. The family was only permitted to bring a maximum of 25 guilders. Their personal effects were sold off.

The Schneiders were eventually granted a residence permit on family grounds: Wilhelm Schneider was married to a Dutchwoman and they had four children. They were able to escape a deportation order by going into hiding. The family still lives in Breda.

(dd/hs)