Drive on Jews Feared As Germans Plan to Give Power to Dutch Nazis

The Hilversum radio, in Nazi-occupied Holland, announced today that the occupation authorities had ordered the release of German and Dutch Nazis arrested by the Netherlands Government.

It was expected here that the Dutch National Socialist Party, which has always maintained the closest contact with the German Government, would be given a large measure of local authority in the spheres not reserved for the invaders. Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo and German police, was reported to have arrived in Amsterdam and to have conferred with the Dutch Nazis.

It was feared that the accession to power of Anton A. Mussert, Dutch Nazi leader, and his friends would result in the launching of a program to reduce Holland’s 180,000 Jews to the position of the Jews in the Reich.

Mussert and his party press had advocated expulsion of Jews from Holland. He had campaigned strenuously for removal of Jews from Government posts and prominent positions in commerce, industry, the professions and press. In a recent interview, Mussert advocated deportation of the Jews and formation of a Jewish settlement in Netherlands Guiana.

German Jewish emigres who had been living in Holland were among a group of refugees who landed from a Dutch fishing boat at an undisclosed east coast British port today. Sidney Van den bergh, member of a noted Dutch Jewish family, who had gone to Holland in April to join the army, was among another party or arriving refugees.

Commenting on the occupation of Holland, the diplomatic correspondent of The Times declares that “the Germans are now likely to take a terrible toll among the thousands of German and Austrian political refugees who sought sanctuary in Holland in recent years.”

“The Dutch Nazis for their part,” he adds, “will need little encouragement to take repressive measures against the Dutch Liberal and Socialist parties.”