By Luuk Koelman 08-May-2008

Poor Jet Bussemaker. The statesecretary of the VWS (Dutch Organisation) told in an interview that the Netherlands spends far to less attention to the role of the Middle-eastern foreigners in the liberation of the Netherlands and Europe during the Second Worldwar. Her argument: in the struggle against the Nazi’s were not only the allied forces active, but for example aslo Moroccan forces. Their part has been ignored.

And here we go again. The Dutch right-wing party PVV (party of extreme-right Geert Wilders) has called for a debate in the Dutch parliament and has asked for a clarification of this “multicultural history falsification”. The debate next week will talk about the 19 fallen Moroccan soldiers who are buried on a war cemetery in the Zeeuwse Kapelle in a Dutch province. 19 Moroccan dead, that’s it. Their part is to be discarded says the PVV, as “ which battle in WW2 would have ended differently without these Moroccans?”.

Grave of Hassan Ben ABDALLAH at the war cemetery in the Zeeuwse Kapelle. He was washed ashore on the Dutch island of Vlieland in the summer of 1940.

A good question. Are 19 dead many? It is at least more then the 16 dead Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan, where we have made so much fuzz about in Holland. Back to WW2. The PVV wants to know which battle would have ended differently if the Moroccan soldiers didn’t participate. Well, an estimated of 77.000 Moroccan soldiers (of a population of 6 million Moroccans) have fought together with the Allies during the liberation of Europe. They fought in 1944 and 1945 mostly in Italy, France and Germany. Many thousands were killed in that period. During the heavy battles in the Italian mountains and the battle at the Gustavline, a third of the allied troops consisted of Moroccans soldiers.

Then let’s look at the Dutch participation, which was the Princess Irene Brigade. A little force counting 1200 men, that were living in exile, compiled out of Dutch men who fled to England after the German invasion into Holland. A bunch of undisciplined men. Prince Bernhard of Holland in the beginning didn’t even want to name the brigade after his daughter. During the liberation of Europe, between August 1944 and May 1945, died a large number of 46 brigade men. Seems a very good question for the debate next week: which battle in WW2 would have ended differently without the Princess Irene Brigade?

Ah, would Holland just have been as brave as Morocco. The North-African country (more or less a French colony), after the catpure of French by the Nazi’s, came under facist rule after June 1940. While queen Wilhelmina of Holland fled in a hurry to England, the Moroccan sultan Mohammed V stayed at his post. He refused to release 200.000 Jews of his country to the Nazi’s. Instead, he asked his Muslim subjects to treat the Jews living in Morocco in the best way. And that they did. The Holocaust got not no foot hold in Morocco.

In Holland, around a 100.000 of the 140.000 Jews were deported and murdered. Dutch government officials of the people’s registration, gave the Nazi’s all the personal records they requested. The Dutch police assisted in the razzia’s, arresting Jews. These are the hard facts: Morocco fought with great courage against the Nazi’s while Holland never did. But on this, you don’t hear the PVV debate about…

Luuk Koelman writes columns for the Dutch Metro newspaper

Article translated from Dutch into English by Arnold Mol, was published in the Dutch Metro newspaper