@article{aup:/content/journals/10.5117/TRA2021.2.004.GENN, author = "van Gennip, Joep", title = "‘Ik was in de gevangenis en gij hebt Mij bezocht’", journal= "Trajecta", year = "2021", volume = "30", number = "2", pages = "303-342", doi = "https://doi.org/10.5117/TRA2021.2.004.GENN", url = "https://www.aup-online.com/content/journals/10.5117/TRA2021.2.004.GENN", publisher = "Amsterdam University Press", issn = "2665-9484", type = "Journal Article", keywords = "Catholic Resocialisation", keywords = "Dutch Vatican Mission.", keywords = "Catholic chaplains", keywords = "Dutch Roman Catholic church", keywords = "Political Delinquents", abstract = "Abstract In the years after the Second World War, the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands played a significant role in providing spiritual and social care to political prisoners and their families, both within and outside residential and internment camps. Although this is mentioned in historical studies, systematic research is still lacking. This article bridges this gap and introduces this theme as a research subject. In the immediate aftermath of the war, the Dutch government tasked Catholic chaplains and their Protestant colleagues to do pastoral and social work in detention and internment camps. This chaplaincy, centralised by the Dutch Catholic Church, was mainly dominated by their regular clergy. Ecumenical cooperation was sought when alleged government abuses in the camps were being investigated, or during campaigns to educate the Dutch population in the message of clemency and forgiveness for small political offenses. There were also Catholic initiatives to help ex-political prisoners re-integrate into society. These initiatives often varied by diocese. Attempts to set up a centralized organisation for this work, in the form of the Dutch Vatican Mission, and later through Catholic charities, failed due to mismanagement. Although at first reluctant to cooperate with the semi-public ‘Association for the Supervision of Political Delinquents’, the Church soon became a partner and helped re-integrate Catholic political delinquents. Several Catholic institutions were involved, and high ranking political (KVP) and religious networks played an important role in shaping a ‘mutual’ policy. Motives for the clergy to help (ex-)political delinquents were numerous. Some had notions of mercy, forgiveness and Christian charity, and some saw this as a project of moral re-education and ‘opportunistic conversions. Finally, there were those clergy who feared the prisoners would divorce their partners, while other tried to prevent the growing communist influence on the former political prisoners.", }