MUSSERT, ANTON ADRIAAN°

MUSSERT, ANTON ADRIAAN° (1894–1946), National Socialist leader in Holland. Originally an engineer in government service, he became active in politics in 1925. He founded the National-Socialist movement (1931), which at the peak of its popularity in the 1935 election received 8% of the votes. When Holland was occupied by Nazi Germany in May 1940, he tried to conduct a national policy and resisted annexation to Germany, but eventually he became a mere tool in the hands of the Germans. After the war he was condemned to death for   collaboration with the enemy. Initially Mussert did not follow an anti-Jewish policy, and even accepted Jews as members of his party. From 1935, however, Jews could not hold office in the party, and in 1940 it was decided under German pressure to expel them altogether. Mussert unsuccessfully warned against the introduction of the yellow badge. For this reason, and because he tried to save some of his Jewish comrades, the Germans regarded him as a "Jew-servant." -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Netherlands. Rijksinstituut voor oorlogsdocumentatie, Processen, no. 3, "Het proces Mussert" (1948); L. de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, 1 (1969), 278–385. (Jozeph Michman (Melkman)