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1 HBjMjMi^^P^^^^^BPM jmW^|/^^^fljK|y mm ,? ... JRLJ^^B^^WL .IBl? ,|M^d DUTCH c?t ics and villages have been famous since (he Middle Ages for clean, well-planned streets and homes. The Royal Palace in Amsterdam, with well-kept square, symbolized Holland's orderly civilization, before the Nazi invaders canie. ,.y . ... , ,,^T - JHr.j GERMANS had respect for neither neatness nor order. Even after formal capitulation of the Dutch army the LuftvvafTc bombed defenseless Rotterdam, killing and wounding tens of thousands of civilians. This was, Hitler said, "a lesson in total war." UP TO THE YEAR 1940, Hollander* were building sturdy and prosperous nation on 13,500 square miles of land. With an amazing system of dykes and reclamation projects and 4,500 miles of canals, eight and one-half million people had converted their country into an engineering landmark and given it a unique and respected position among the nations of the world. Holland was a country of small farms, of famous flower nurseries, of dairy products, of chemical and shipbuilding industries. Livitig under a constitutional hereditary monarchy, the Dutch, together with their rich empire in the East and West Indies, had spent their income on social legislation, raising their own standard of living. Into this peaceful country, against a people who wanted to be friendly, without warning, Germans hurled the full fury of their blitzkrieg on the morning of May 10, 1940. ON DAY of German invasion, Hollanders rushed "to mobilize. But Germans had more tanks, planes, and troops?and many Dutch soldiers never returned. PEACE-TIME Holland was mixture of old and new. With their country literally built on the sea, Dutchmen have always found fishing profitable. p.v MIDDELBURG'S Town Hall was center of city's democracy for centuries. Thus, to German army leaders it became a "military objective." i t ism -X -v- - win,? ? HOLLANDERS, like these pedaling homewards after a day's work in Amsterdam, were content, industrious and religious. Dutch had not seen a war since 1814. ? - - ?jmesm*! - -pwrrr^ WAR came suddenly, and with it indiscriminate bombing. Century-old churches crumpled in seconds. Today Catholics nnd Protestants are united vs. Nazis. NAZI bombers were not unopposed. A small Dutch airforce fought bravely, often recklessly, and many Germaa plan? crashed on cities they meant to bomb. ~r * BACKED BY A TREMENDOUS air armada and the usual Nazi trickeries, German invaders overwhelmed Dutch opposition and occupied Holland in live days. Even after formal capitulation, German bombers sowed a train of death and destruction i through one of Holland's principal cities. The object | was to break Dutch resistance once and for all. Now two years have passed since the German invasion. Finance and business have been incorporated into the needs of the German Reich. All papers are Nazi-controlled; all schools teach Nazi racial theories | and German interpretations of history; religion is ! treated as something that can be done without; i workers are being geared to Hitler's war machine. This is the "New Order." But also after two years, the Dutch have remained solidly behind their Queen | Wilhelmina. Less than one per cent of the entire popuj lation has joined the so-called Dutch Nazi party. All German promises and collaboration efforts have met with nation-wide passive and open resistance. Dutchmen at home or fighting with their Allies, have borne out the conviction of one of their leading statesmen, E. N. Van Kleffens, who said: "A nation which for centuries has been used to free institutions, never loses the taste of them." FOR DAYS AND NIGHTS the city of Rotterdam was swept*7 an Inferno of fire, smoke, ruin and death. But even as Germans marched into Holland's cities, Dfetch soldiers were assembling in Britain, and naval craft were entering British Ports to renew the struggle. NEW Dutch destroyers are cooperating with the Allied Fleet off England, in the Mediterranean and in the Far East. TWO and ne-haH niltmm < armed Dutch merchant ihiyc ?eef are ?wvliii awltoa >j? m ifTUitaww