| Anton Adriaan Mussert (May 11, 1894-May 7, 1946) was a leader of the
Dutch National Socialist (Nazi) government during the Second World War.
He was born in 1894 in Werkendam the
province of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands. In the 1920s he became active in several extreme right organizations such as the Dietsche Bond
which advocated a Greater Netherlands including Flanders (Dutch-speaking Belgium). On December 14, 1931 he, Cornelis van
Geelkerken and ten others founded the Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (NSB) or in English National Socialist Movement. He was received by Pope Pius XI on June 16, 1936. Mussert met Hitler in November of 1936.
During World War II he became the leader of the Dutch National Socialist
government. An all-Dutch volunteer SS unit, the SS-Freiwilligen-Legion Niederlande was formed in 1941 by Mussert.
He was arrested on May 7, 1945, tried for his
collaboration in November, and executed for treason on May 7, 1946 in the Hague.
References
- The Patriotic Traitors: A history of collaboration in German-occupied Europe, 1940-45 by David Littlejohn ISBN 043442725X
- Dutch Under German Occupation: 1940-1945 by Werner Warmbrunn ISBN 0804701520
- Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 edited by Philip Rees, 1991, ISBN 0130893013
External links
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