This book examines the manifold forms and motives for collaboration between the Dutch and their German occupiers during the Second World War, by looking at the main areas of political and economic life under occupation. It investigates the policies of accommodation during the first phase of Nazi rule and analyses the desperate survival tactics of the prewar parties, trade unions and the press.

The first book to offer a complete story of the extraordinary proliferation of Dutch clandestine literature under the Nazi occupation. Clandestine literature was published in all countries under Nazi occupation, but nowhere else did it flourish as it did in the Netherlands. This raises important questions: What was the content of this literature? What were the risks of writing, printing, selling, and buying it? And why the Netherlands? Traditionally, the combative Dutch "spirit of resistance" has been cited, a reaction not only to German oppression but to German propaganda: while the Germans hoped to build bonds with their "Germanic" Dutch "brothers," clandestine literature insisted on their incompatibility. However, when reading clandestine literature, one should not forget that this "spirit of resistance" came rather late and did not prevent the transportation of seventy-three percent of the Netherlands' Jewish population to Nazi death camps -- the largest percentage in Western Europe. The Dutch case is complex: while the country proved to be remarkably resistant to Nazi propaganda, little was done to prevent the actual execution of Nazi policies. The complete story of Dutch clandestine literature therefore combines resistance and complicity, victory and defeat, pride and shame. Jeroen Dewulf is Queen Beatrix Professor of Dutch Studies in the Department of German at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Dutch in Wartime: Survivors Remember is a series of books with wartime memories of Dutch immigrants to North America, who survived the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. Book 2, Under Nazi Rule, is about the hardships and fears of living through war and occupation. Every normal task becomes an almost impossible, sometimes dangerous, chore. Designed and written to be easily accessible to readers of all ages and backgrounds, these books contain important stories about the devastating effects of war and occupation on a civilian population.