Sample Solution

econd section will evaluate how successful the German occupation was at implementing Nazification, mainly assessing their use of the native parties in pursing this policy. The final section will consider the German occupation policy of deportation and execution of Jewish citizens and whether the Germans achieved their objective in this context. The essay will conclude that the policies were of varying success. However, the German’s broadly achieved their objective in relation to the extermination of the Jews, as no other Nazi occupying force achieved such a low survival rate of Jews.

First, a policy which was a top priority for the Germans was the utilisation of the Dutch economy to help the German war effort (Warmbrunn, 1963, p.69). Initially the Germans had exerted an indirect economic control on the Netherlands and its other conquered territories and left the day to day economic policies in the hands of the natives, whilst keeping general supervision (Hirschfield, 1988, p.182). Goering had said that he intended to leave Holland sufficiently independent as to manage their own economy, but still connected closely enough to the Reich, so that German influence on the economic sphere would be significantly strengthened (ibid., p.28). Despite this, the Germans still used their power to plunder from the Dutch, raw materials as well as over 50,000 machines including 18,096 electric motors and 2,375 sewing machines (Klemann, 2008, pp.473-74), and 100,000 bicycles; all of which helped the German war effort (Warmbrunn, 1963, p.71). However, more significantly, the German occupation helped utilise the economy for the Reich’s benefit through the harnessing of Dutch industries. The success of the German’s utilisation of the Netherlands can be seen in the fact that by 1944, 50% of Dutch industry worked exclusively for the Germans (Moore, 1991, p.115). Moreover, Dutch industries were the most productive of all the occupied European states. By the end of 1943, Dutch industry had delivered on 84% of all