oa Propagandaslag om Europa

Propaganda battle for Europe. Interactions between the Dutch pro-Nazi and pro-Allied press after Operation Barbarossa

During the German occupation of the Netherlands the occupying authorities, Dutch collaborators, and journalists writing under censorship frequently invoked the notion of ‘Europe’ in order to legitimize Nazi-Germany’s occupation and war aims. Hitler’s invasion of Russia was justified as a crusade in defence of European civilization which justified the involvement of Dutch volunteers. While in Dutch language media the propaganda initiative lay with nazified newspapers and radio, resistance newspapers and in particular Radio Orange – the mouthpiece of the Dutch government-in-exile in London – waged a vigorous counter-campaign. This article analyzes the various ways in which Radio Orange and the Dutch underground press strove to combat Nazi narratives on Europe. They rejected any associations between National-Socialist Europe and ‘Christianity’, ‘civilization’ and ‘preservation of Dutch national sovereignty’ and exposed the methods, motives, and inefficacy of Nazi propaganda.