Incarceration and Regime Change by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Crimes & Criminals, Penology, History, European General, Military, World War II
ISBN: 9781785332661
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2016-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Government Intervention

The government took an ambiguous stand towards the internment. The governor-general had ordered the internment, but soon after the commencement of internment of NSB members and Germans in the Indies, the internment practices became seen as undesirable, and change seemed to be close at hand. After witnessing the maltreatment of the internees on Onrust at the end of May 1940, Governor-General AWL Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer ordered that a separate internment camp be prepared for the Germans in northern Sumatra. Also he established an internment board to advise on the internment and release of detainees. However, this board concluded, based on limited available files on NSB activities and allegations and without interrogating any of the detainees, that there was no reason to terminate the internment.54

One of the most pressing issues, the selection of Germans and NSB members for arrest, was neglected by the board, and it was clear that this had been carried out in an anything but accurate manner. On 9 May 1940, the local governors of the colonial administration (residents) had been ordered to hand in lists of the local leaders and alleged members of the NSB. They had to check all allegations and provide factual evidence of their subversive activity and had to indicate those for whom internment was most desirable. This was practically impossible to carry out. The lists that the governors had received were not up to date and often contained names of people who had withdrawn their membership. In addition to government officials, civilians also provided many names of people in their surroundings whom they suspected of sympathizing with Germany or the NSB. After the war, investigators acknowledged that it was possible that government officials had protected friends and family from being listed.55

In the meantime, pressure increased from Nazi authorities in the Netherlands, who had learned about the internment of Germans in the Netherlands Indies and ordered their release. When the governor-general refused to comply with these demands, 231 government officials in the Netherlands were arrested and transported to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in July 1940.56 Among the internees were a substantial number of officials from the Netherlands Indies who were on leave in the Netherlands. The governor-general ignored orders from the government-inexile to comply with the demands, for in his eyes the Dutch government was, given its position, not able to make such decisions. After new negotiations at the end of October, the Dutch agreed to ship a few hundred German women and children from the Netherlands Indies to other locations in Asia in exchange for the release of Dutch female hostages.57 Yet the Netherlands Indies government persisted in not releasing the German men, and therefore a new group of prominent Dutch men in the Netherlands were taken hostage in October 1940.58 Among the internees were the future Attorney General of the Netherlands Indies, HW Felderhof, and future Minister of Overseas Territories, JHA Logemann.59

It remains unclear whether it was in response to the German repercussions, but in July 1940 the investigation board decided to conduct interrogations in the camps.

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