Voor het te laat is !…- “Before It’s Too Late…!”, An Antisemitic Dutch Booklet by Max Blokzijl – The Fanatical Dutch Supporter of Nazism (Executed After the War), Calling on Dutch Citizens to Cooperate with the Nazi Occupiers and Join the Vision of the Thousand-Year Reich for the Benefit of the Netherlands. Published by De Boekenschouw, The Hague, 1941.
The author, Max Blokzijl, was a Dutch journalist, broadcaster, and pro-Nazi propagandist. During the war years, he served as a key propaganda tool for the German occupation of the Netherlands. In this booklet, published shortly after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, he lays out his ideology. He emphasizes to the Dutch public the importance of collaboration with the Germans under Nazi ideology to maintain a “New Order” in Europe. Blokzijl argues that the German occupation presents an opportunity to strengthen the Netherlands politically, economically, and culturally. He warns against the influence of “internal enemies” such as Jews, communists, and democrats. Using manipulative language, he attempts to convince the Dutch that joining the German effort is a necessary step, employing nationalist rhetoric and fear-based messaging to garner support. The Nazis often used local elites who supported their ideology to spread Nazi propaganda among occupied populations, and they applied this strategy in the Netherlands as well.
In the introduction, N. Oosterbann urges the Dutch people to extend their hand to the German occupiers: “What an unforgivable folly, indeed a crime against future generations, if we Dutch persist in our negative attitude toward the generous offer of loyal cooperation and warm friendship that the Führer of the great German Reich extends to us! An offer that allows us to preserve our national life and our Dutch culture without decline and also opens the gates of all Europe to our spirit of enterprise. An offer that has rarely, if ever, been made to a conquered people in human history… People of the Netherlands, it is now or never! Now seize the outstretched hand of our German brethren… before it’s too late! This is the very serious warning you constantly hear in the stirring words of Max Blokzijl. May these words echo in your Dutch heart!”
Max Blokzijl (1884–1946) was born in Leeuwarden, a singer and journalist whose grandmother on one side was Jewish. He worked in German journalism in Berlin between 1918 and 1940. A convinced Nazi, Blokzijl joined the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) in 1935. After the German invasion, he returned to the Netherlands and became the head of propaganda for the Nazi-controlled puppet regime. He also broadcast pro-Nazi radio programs from Hilversum, particularly noted for their extreme anti-British rhetoric. After the war, Blokzijl was executed for collaborating with the enemy and for spreading propaganda that aided the Germans. On March 16, 1946, he became the first Dutch collaborator to be executed.
31 pages. Good condition.
