The Dutch Oath: Swearing-in the Legion Niederlande #ww2 #ww2rebuilder #history #military

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The Volunteer Legion Netherlands (Dutch: Vrijwilligerslegioen Nederland) was a collaborationist military formation recruited in the German-occupied Netherlands during World War II. It was formed in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and fought on the Eastern Front in the Waffen SS alongside similar formations from other parts of German-occupied Western Europe. It was the largest Dutch SS unit.

The Volunteer Legion was renamed the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Brigade Netherlands in October 1943. It was officially re-designated as a division in February 1945 but never grew to larger than a brigade.

When the Germans invaded in May 1940, several political parties in the Netherlands sympathized with the authoritarian and anti-democratic ideals of Nazi Germany. The most important was the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland, NSB), led by Anton Mussert, founded in 1931 on the example of the Nazi Party in Germany. It initially gained limited interest from the Dutch lower-middle class but never gained widespread support. It polled only three percent in 1939.

After the invasion of Poland in 1939, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, sought to expand the Waffen-SS with "Germanic" volunteers from other countries. The enrollment began in April 1940 with the creation of two regiments: the Waffen-SS Regiment Nordland (for Danish, Norwegian and Swedish volunteers), and the Waffen-SS Regiment Westland (for Dutch and Flemish volunteers).

Recruitment in the Netherlands was given an air of respectability by the support of Dutch General Staff officer Lieutenant-General Hendrik Seyffardt. By April 1941, volunteers began arriving in Hamburg. By July 1941, the Dutch were organized into SS Volunteer Unit Niederlande. The formation was the size of a reinforced infantry battalion, with five motorized companies. The unit was again redesignated, this time as SS Volunteer Legion Niederlande under General Seyffardt. In November 1941, the legion was ordered to the front near Leningrad, under the overall command of Army Group North Rear Area.