1940 - 1945

Despite German promises to respect Dutch neutrality and the fact that no ultimatum or declaration of war had been issued, German troops crossed the border on May 10th 1940. Destroying Rotterdam 4 days later the Dutch were quickly overwhelmed.

Queen Wilhelmina fled to London. Thousands of Dutch men were taken to Germany and forced to work there in factories. A far worse fate waited the country's Jews, among them Anna Frank, who's diary is a testament to the horrors that were implemented on them. More than a hundred thousand men. Women and children, comprising 75 per cent of the Jewish community in the Netherlands, were to die in German concentration camps.

23.000 resistance fighters were killed in the war years. Liberation began in autumn 1944 with Operation Market Garden. This was a British plan to finish the war fast by creating a corridor stretching from Eindhoven to Arnhem, gaining control of the three main rivers en route, isolating the occupying forces to the west in the Netherlands and pushing straight into Germany. The operation failed when they lost their battle to take the bridge at Arnhem. German opposition was much stronger than expected and they had to withdraw. The failure led to a difficult winter for the provinces in the north and west. The Germans stripped the country of much of its food and wealth and there was mass starvation combined with an exceptionally severe winter. The liberation of the whole country was finally achieved in the spring of 1945 when the Germans surrendered to the Canadians at Wageningen.