Arthur Seyys-Inquart on the Goals of German Policy
in the Netherlands Generally and the Jews Specifically
(March 12, 1941)
The February strike tarnished the status
of Reichskommissar Seyss-Inquart
in the eyes of the Third Reich leadership. In the Netherlands,
too, it generated fierce anti-German public sentiment. Therefore, Seyss-Inquart
thought it best to clarify unequivocally his fealty to Hitler
and the goals of his policy in Holland. He communicated this loyalty
to an audience of members of the German Nazi
Party in Holland (Arbeitsbereich der NSDAP), in the
famous Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. A pamphlet in which Seyss-Inquarts
remarks were translated into Dutch contained thirty one densely printed
pages. Below are several excerts from the beginning and end of the speech,
and from the segment pertaining to the Jews.
One can assert with no doubt that about the turn [the
beginning] of the sixteenth century, the Dutch people, exactly like
the other tribes [Volksstammen] who were then combined in the common
Reich, had at its disposal the characteristics [or virtues] and preconditions
to make it in a conform further developmentan element of the German
people [Deutsche volk] into which other tribes who remained in the Reich
have melted in the meantime.
To state this means, that the Dutch and the Germansfrom
the viewpoint of this national statehave not grown into one people,
but that they have at their disposal the same racial conditions, and
thus are according to blood related peoples, and capable of an ever-growing
From the fact that the occupied territories to the
west of the former border of the German Reich only in the Netherlands
a civil administration has been introduced, it must be concluded that
the Fuehrer did not want to treat the Netherlands primarily from the
point of view that it is [just] a country occupied by German military
The Jews are not Dutch for us. They are an enemy with
whom we cannot agree upon cease-fire or peace.... We will hit the Jews
wherever we find them, and those who side with them shall have to bear
the consequences. The Fuehrer has declared that the role of the Jews
in Europe has come to an end, so it has come to an end. The only thing
we can talk about is the creation of a bearable state of transition....
But when the time comes that Germany will not have to take care any
more for the maintenance of order and public life as an occupying power,
then the Dutch people will have to choose if it wants to risk its companiable
going together with the German people because of the Jews....
We hope [ wollen ] that the Dutch themselves, from
their inner conviction and with their whole heart [ mit dem Einsatz
ihres ganzen Wesens ] shall fall in [ antreten ] for the great work
of construction of our Germanic communal range and with thatof
a new Europe....
So we have fallen in [we have come] here, we stay
here on this territory to fulfill a historic task. We will not budge
an inch from this ground before this task is fulfilled.... We are really
full of religious fanaticism....
Source: Rede van den Rijkscommissaris Rijksminister
Dr. Seyss-Inquart geheouden op Woensdag 12 Maart 1941 in het Concertgebouw
te Amsterdam voor het Arbeitsbereich der NSDAP in de Nederlanden (n.p.,
n.d.), pp. 6, 12, 21-22, 30-31.