<MUSSERT, ANTON ADRIAAN
(1894-1946), National Socialist leader in Holland.
Originally an engineer in government service, he became
active in politics in 1925. He founded the
National-Socialist movement (1931), which at the peak of
its popularity in the 1935 election received 8% of the
votes.
When Holland was occupied by Nazi Germany (col. 717)
in May 1940, he tried to conduct a national policy and
resisted annexation to Germany, but eventually he became a
mere tool in the hands of the Germans.
[[In the late years of the war there was a big hunger in
Holland because the German occupation took all Dutch
products to Germany]].
After the war he was condemned to death for collaboration
with the enemy.
Initially Mussert did not follow an anti-Jewish policy,
and even accepted Jews as members of his party. From 1935,
however, Jews could not hold office in the party, and in
1940 it was decided under German pressure to expel them
altogether. Mussert unsuccessfully warned against the
introduction of the yellow badge. For this reason, and
because he tried to save some of his Jewish comrades, the
Germans regarded him as a "Jew-servant".
Bibliography
-- Netherlands. Rijksinstituut voor oorlogsdocumentatie:
Processen, no. 3: "Het proces Mussert" (1948)
-- L. de Jong: Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede
Wereldoorlog, I (1969), 278-385> (col. 718)
