oa ‘Foute’ vrouwen in het gareel dwingen

From ‘fallen women’ to ‘good housewives’: The resocialization of female collaborators in post-occupation Netherlands, 1946-1951

The extensive re-education programs that followed the internment of Dutch collaborators have received scant historical attention. Over a period of five years after their arrest, around 90,000 so-called political delinquents became eligible for conditional release. Instead of being tried, they were released under the condition that they would be subjected to intrusive resocialization programs by the Dutch state. The re-education of women was influenced by an issue considered less relevant for men: these women had to be trusted with raising the next generation of Dutch citizens. Based on archival material from the institution responsible for resocialization, Stichting Toezicht Politieke Delinquenten, this article describes this interference in the private lives of female collaborators after their release. It shows how they were expected to behave in order to be accepted back into Dutch society, and challenges the persisting myth that women were principally sexual collaborators.