biography
| name: |
Mussert, Anton Adriaan
|
pronunciation:
[muhsert]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1894–1946)
|
| biography:
| Dutch politician, born in Werkendam, SWC Netherlands. He studied engineering at Delft, and was first introduced to politics in 1925 as secretary of the successful opposition to a treaty recommending a canal link with Belgium, which was considered to be disadvantageous for The Netherlands. He was originally a liberal, but by 1931 had become a Fascist and was co-founder of the NSB (National Socialist Movement). He gradually took the NSB closer to the German National Socialist ideology, and by 1937 supported anti-Semitism and Hitler's territorial expansion (which after 1936 lost the NSB half its members). When World War 2 started, he championed the neutrality of The Netherlands, but his sympathies were with Germany. He went underground to avoid internment, and offered his services to the invaders after the surrender, seeing himself as the leader of a state within a German federation. He worked with the Germans throughout the war and was tried and executed in 1946. |
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