Introduction

Summary

THE GERMAN INVASION OF THE NETHERLANDS on 10 May 1940 was not only a tragedy for the Dutch people; it was also a tragedy for Dutch literature. In just a few weeks the intellectual leaders of an entire generation would disappear. In the chaos of the battle of Rotterdam, Doeke Zijlstra, editor-in-chief of the publishing house Nijgh & Van Ditmar, was killed by a stray bullet. Publisher Robert Leopold, who feared German revenge for his publication of Hermann Rauschning's critical work Gespräche mit Hitler (Conversations with Hitler, 1939), shot himself. The promising Jewish writer Jacob Hiegentlich took poison and died. The young poet Tom de Bruin was accidentally shot by a nervous Dutch sentry who mistook him for a German parachutist. Jo Otten, author of neo-Romantic prose, died from a stray bomb during the assault on The Hague. Hendrik Marsman, the most celebrated Dutch poet of his time, tried to escape but the ship that would have taken him to England exploded and he drowned. By then two of the most prominent essayists, Edgar du Perron and Menno ter Braak, had already died; du Perron collapsed from a heart attack during the bombardment of an airport near his home, and ter Braak committed suicide upon the news of the Dutch surrender to the Germans. What might seem to be the final act of a Greek tragedy was only the beginning. During the occupation at least 770 men and women in the underground publishing movement would lose their lives.