Dutch SS Ceremony in Utrecht

Image size: 1056 x 1600 pixel. 317 KB
Date: Sunday, 11 May 1941
Place: Utrecht, Netherlands
Photographer: Unknown

Dutch SS ceremony in Utrecht, 11 May 1941. On 11 September 1940 the NSB (Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging in Nederland) formed the Nederlandsche SS (Dutch SS), it had up to 7,000 members. Himmler's vision for a Germanic SS started with grouping the Netherlands, Belgium and north-east France together into a western-Germanic state called Burgundia which would be policed by the SS as a security buffer for Germany. In 1940, the first manifestation of the Germanic SS appeared in Flanders as the Allgemeene SS Vlaanderen to be joined two-months later by the Dutch Nederlandsche SS and in May 1941 the Norwegian Norges SS was formed. The final nation to contribute to the Germanic SS was Denmark, whose Germansk Korpet (later called the Schalburg Corps) came into being in April 1943. For the SS, they did not think of their compatriots in terms of national borders but in terms of Germanic racial makeup, known conceptually to them as Deutschtum, a greater idea which transcended traditional political boundaries. While the SS leadership foresaw an imperialistic and semi-autonomous relationship for the Nordic/Germanic countries like Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway as co-bearers of a greater Germanic empire, Hitler refused to grant them the same degree of independence despite ongoing pressure from ranking members of the SS.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_SS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Movement_in_the_Netherlands
http://virepicf.pw/Image-Dutch-SS-in-Utrecht-11-May-1941-History-World-War-II.html