The Dutch response to the anti-Jewish measures in Germany was closely monitored by the German Legation in The Hague. The reports sent to the Auswärtiges Amt in Berlin refer repeatedly to articles in the daily and weekly press that support or criticise the measures. The legation seems to take the view that criticism of German actions was the result of international anti-German propaganda rather than indignation at the treatment of Jews.

'In the country of poets and great thinkers......', 19 November 1938 (NIOD 184172)

Dutch protest, 1938 (NIOD 62804)

The Auswärtiges Amt, in turn, kept the German Legation in The Hague informed by sending it copies of requests from the Dutch Legation in Berlin. For example, in June 1935 the Dutch Legation in Berlin asked for clarification regarding reports that all German-Jewish refugees that returned to Germany were being arrested and placed in Schulungslager (training camps).

[An affirmative answer, stating that the camps were for ‘protective custody’ and not for Jews alone, seems to have sufficed to allay the concern.] (entries 232 and 233)

The Dutch response was closely monitored for two reasons: to give the Auswärtiges Amt an idea of anti-German sentiment in the Netherlands and to find openings for encouraging and steering antisemitism within the Dutch borders. In February 1938 Count von Zech-Burkersroda was allowed at his own discretion to show Dutch associates reports with a clearly anti-Semitic tone from, for example, German posts in Romania (entries 73-77).

After 1940 Envoy Bene reported the Dutch reaction to Inland II (Territory II). Needless to say, he no longer drew his information from parliamentary debates or newspaper articles, but from pamphlets and rumours about the persecution of the Jews. (entry 517)