Operation Black Tulip was a plan proposed in 1945, just after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, by the Dutch minister of Justice

Hans Kolfschoten Henri Anthony Melchior Tieleman "Hans" Kolfschoten (17 August 1903 – 2 August 1984) was a Dutch politician of the defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP) now merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). Kolfschoten was minister of Justice, ...

to forcibly

deport Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

all

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The operation lasted from 1946 to 1948 and in total 3,691 Germans (15% of the German residents in the Netherlands) were deported.

Background

After

, the Netherlands was a country in ruins and the major pre-war trade links with Germany and Indonesia were severed. Because of the importance of trade with Germany, the proposed demand for compensation (25 billion

Guilder Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' "gold penny". This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Empir ...

s — ten times the actual damage) was dropped. But there was still significant resentment. Many people were arrested, most notably collaborators ( NSB). The 25,000 Germans living in the Netherlands were branded as "hostile subjects" (''vijandelijke onderdanen''). They were slated to be evicted in three groups in reverse order of entry. The first who had to leave were those who came after the start of the first world war (mostly factory workers), then those who came after 1932 (including political refugees, some of them Jews), and then the rest, many of whom were economic refugees from the 1920s.

Timeline

The operation started on 11 September 1946 in Amsterdam, where Germans and their families were taken from their homes in the middle of the night and given one hour to collect fifty kilograms of luggage. They were allowed to take one hundred Guilders. The rest of their possessions went to the state. They were taken to

internment Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

camps near the German border, the biggest of which was Mariënbosch concentration camp near

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

.1981) The operation ended in 1948, and when the state of war with Germany officially ended on 26 July 1951 the Germans were no longer regarded as state enemies.

Scholarship and media coverage

After the plan was ended, little attention was devoted to it by historians and the media. A 2005 episode of the Dutch TV show ''

Andere Tijden ''Andere Tijden'' (''Other''/''Different Times'') is a history programme on Dutch television of the NTR and VPRO. There is also a version of the programme called ''Andere Tijden Sport'', which shows programmes about sports history. ''Andere Tijden ...

'' focused on the events, and in 2013 journalist Ad van Liempt, who had worked on the ''Andere Tijden'' documentary, published on it in his study of the postwar years ''Na de bevrijding: de loodzware jaren 1945-1950''.

Notes

Literature

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External links