Black Front (Netherlands)

Last updated
Black Front / National Front
Zwart Front / Nationaal Front
Leader Arnold Meijer
FoundedMay 1934
DissolvedDecember 1941
Split from General Dutch Fascist League
Headquarters Oisterwijk (Black Front),
The Hague (National Front)
NewspaperZwart Front
De Weg
Nederlandsch Dagblad
Ideology Fascism
Greater Netherlands

The Black Front (Dutch : Zwart Front), later known as the National Front (Nationaal Front) was a Dutch Greater Netherlands and fascist movement active before and during the first years of the Second World War.

Contents

Party history

The Black Front grew out of the southern section of the General Dutch Fascist League, with regional organiser Arnold Meijer quarrelling with leader Jan Baars and leading his followers out in 1934. [1] The Black Front emerged and soon took over a number of smaller movements, while also gaining some support among the poorer parts of society. Although similar to its parent movement, the Black Front emphasised a more Catholic line in tune with Meijer's own religious beliefs. [2] Taking its cue in part from Italian fascism, it adopted that movement's black-shirted uniform while adding a unique emblem featuring a sword between a pair of ram horns. [3]

As a revolutionary fascist party, the small organisation was fiercely anti-capitalist and often came into contact with the justice system. Meijer was convicted multiple times of ignoring the ban on political uniforms and insulting government officials, including Prime Minister Colijn. In 1938, the Black Front leader spent three months in the prison of Breda for insulting Prime Minister Colijn and Minister Van Schaik. [4] The party also had a paramilitary wing named the Black Storm (Zwarte Storm). [4]

The group struggled to gain support from the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB); it was renamed the National Front in 1940. [1] The National Front was ultimately banned by Nazi Germany on 14 December 1941, along with all other Dutch political parties except for the NSB. The majority of its members switched to the NSB, although Meijer, disillusioned, left politics altogether. [5]

Het Nederlandsch Volksfascisme Zwart Front tegen NSB Zwart Front.jpg
Het Nederlandsch Volksfascisme Zwart Front tegen NSB

Members

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Socialist Movement (Netherlands)</span> Dutch Nazi movement and political party

The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands was a Dutch fascist and later Nazi political organisation that eventually became a political party. As a parliamentary party participating in legislative elections, the NSB had some success during the 1930s. Under German occupation, it remained the only legal party in the Netherlands during most of the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rexist Party</span> Far-right political party in Belgium from 1935-45

The Rex Popular Front, Rexist Party, or simply Rex, was a far-right Catholic authoritarian and corporatist political party active in Belgium from 1935 until 1945. The party was founded by a journalist, Léon Degrelle, It advocated Belgian unitarism and royalism. Initially, the party ran in both Flanders and Wallonia, but it never achieved much success outside Wallonia and Brussels. Its name was derived from the Roman Catholic journal and publishing company Christus Rex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anton Mussert</span> Dutch Nazi sympathizer

Anton Adriaan Mussert was a Dutch politician who co-founded the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) in 1931 and served as its leader until the party was banned in 1945. As such, he was the most prominent Dutch leader of the movement before and during World War II. Mussert collaborated with the German occupation government, but was granted little actual power and held the nominal title of Leider van het Nederlandsche Volk from 1942 onwards. In May 1945, as the war came to an end in Europe, Mussert was captured and arrested by Allied forces. He was charged and convicted of treason, and was executed in 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelis van Geelkerken</span> Dutch fascist political leader and Nazi collaborator

Cornelis "Kees" van Geelkerken was a Dutch fascist political leader and Nazi collaborator.

<i>Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890</i> 1990 book by Philip Rees

The Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 is a reference book by Philip Rees, on leading people in the various far right movements since 1890. It contains entries for what the author regards as "the 500 major figures on the radical right, extreme right, and revolutionary right from 1890 to the present" . It was published, as a 418-page hardcover, in New York by Simon & Schuster in 1990 (ISBN 0-13-089301-3).

Fascist symbolism is the use of certain images and symbols which are designed to represent aspects of fascism. These include national symbols of historical importance, goals, and political policies. The best-known are the fasces, which was the original symbol of fascism, and the swastika of Nazism.

A number of political movements have involved their members wearing uniforms, typically as a way of showing their identity in marches and demonstrations. The wearing of political uniforms has tended to be associated with radical political beliefs, typically at the far-right or far-left of politics, and can be used to imply a paramilitary type of organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Socialist Dutch Workers Party</span> Political party in the Netherlands

The National Socialist Dutch Workers Party or NSNAP was a minor Dutch Nazi party founded in 1931 and led by Ernst Herman van Rappard. Seeking to copy the fascism of others, notably Adolf Hitler, the group failed to achieve success and was accused by rivals such as the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) and the General Dutch Fascist League of being too moderate for a fascist movement.

The National European Social Movement was a Dutch neo-Nazi party, founded in 1953 as the political arm of the Stichting Oud Politieke Delinquenten, and disbanded by a ruling of the Dutch Supreme Court in 1955.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Haighton</span>

Coenraad Alfred Augustus Haighton was a millionaire businessman and the leader of the Netherlands' first fascist movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arnold Meijer</span> Dutch fascist politician (1905–1965)

Arnoldus Jozephus Meijer was a Dutch fascist politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Hoornaert</span> Belgian political activist

Paul Hoornaert was a Belgian far right political activist. Although a pioneer of fascism in the country he was an opponent of German Nazism and, after joining the Belgian Resistance during the German occupation, died in Nazi custody.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Blokzijl</span> Dutch singer and journalist

Marius Hugh Louis Wilhelm "Max" Blokzijl was a Dutch singer and journalist. After the German occupation of the Netherlands, Blokzijl was sentenced to death and executed for his collaboration with Nazi Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert van Genechten</span> Dutch politician

Robert van Genechten was a Belgian-born Dutch politician and writer and a leading collaborator during the German occupation of the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jef François</span> Belgian politician

Josephus Alphonsus Marie François was a Belgian Flemish far right politician and Nazi collaborator.

Jan Aksel Wolthuis, a lawyer by training, was a Dutch Nazi who collaborated with the German occupiers during World War II and after the war was active in far-right politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weerbaarheidsafdeling</span> Organization

The Weerbaarheidsafdeling was the paramilitary arm of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB), the fascist political party that collaborated with the German occupiers of the Netherlands during World War II. The organization, roughly equivalent to the German SA, was founded in 1932 by Anton Mussert, co-founder of the NSB in 1931 and its leader until the end of the war. Members wore and marched in black uniforms and were thus called "blackshirts". In 1933 the Dutch government banned the wearing of uniforms, and the WA was disbanded in 1935 in order to forestall the Dutch government's banning it. In 1940, after the German invasion, the WA became openly active again, and more ruthless than before. They specialized in violent attacks, particularly on the Dutch Jewish population.

The Netherlands Union was a short-lived political movement active in the German-occupied Netherlands in World War II. In its brief period of activity between July 1940 and May 1941, up to 800,000 Dutch people became members, which was about a tenth of the population at the time. It represented the largest political movement in the history of the Netherlands.

Fascism, including National Socialism, has been present in movements and political parties in the Netherlands since 1923, as part of fascism in Europe.

References

  1. 1 2 Philip Rees, Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 , p. 260
  2. Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism 1914-1945, London, Routledge, 2001, p. 302
  3. David Littlejohn, The Patriotic Traitors , London: Heinemann, 1972, p. 85
  4. 1 2 Van Noort, André (2022). 'Storm op den staat!': Arnold Meijer 1905-1965. Uitgeverij Verloren. ISBN   9789464550221.
  5. Littlejohn, Patriotic Traitors. p. 100