Between the devil and the deep blue sea - University of Canterbury

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socialised activity".43 After 1919, Dutch men and women also commemorated the Great
War in a variety of ways. How they did this, given that the war was well-known around the
globe for its unique character of memorialisation, provides significant insight into why the
Dutch allowed the conflict to slide from memory after 1940.
A substantial amount of interwar literature fed the ready market of the hundred of
thousands of men who had served and their families. Between 1914 and 1918, conscripts
complained about the nature of the mobilisation. After 1919, they wrote increasingly
nostalgic accounts. 44 "Military societies" had a similar purpose of reminiscence and
romanticism. Their main aim was the celebration of the annual anniversary of the first
mobilisation day (1 August). They also gave financial aid to ex-soldiers and some, like the
Nationale Bond "Het Mobilisatiekruis" (National Union "The Mobilisation Cross"), had a
more educational role: they tried to ensure that "lessons of 1914 - 1918 be kept in our
thoughts".45 It was on the eve of the Second W odd War that this organisation published a
commemorative booklet in remembrance of 25 years since the outbreak of the First Wodd
War. 46
For a large part, such remembrances and literature helped foster false ideas about
the viability of neutrality. A. Captijn, for example, ably portrayed the popular trappings of
neutrality ideals in his play Vlag en Vaandel (Flag and Banner), published in 1931:
This is the land of Justice and Freedom
This has always been the land of peace;
That freedom will only be broken
If our country's neutrality
Is unlawfully breached ....
Our anny today
43 Kate Darian-Smith, "Remembering romance: Memory, gender and World War II" in Joy Damousi, Marilyn Lake
(eds.), Gender and War. Australians at war in the twentieth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995,
p.118.
44 G. Mulder, Mobilisatie Kameraden. [Mobilisation comrades] Baarn: Bosch & Keuning, year unknown; S. K.
Bakker, Zedenspeluit oorlogstijd. [Game of ethics in wartime] Zwolle: publisher unknown, 1919; A. S. Houwink,
Mobilisatie. [Mobilisation] Maastricht: Boosten & Stols, 1926; 1. Erkens, In het Grijsgroen. Schetsen uit het
Soldatenleven. [In grey-green. Sketches of a soldier's life] Heijthuijsen: J. Beijnsberger & Zonen, 1926; A. Captijn,
Vlag en Vaandel. Nederland in de Oorlogsjaren 1914 - 1918. Spelmet Zang voor Zaal en Openlucht Twee Bedrijven
met Slot-Apotheose. [Flag and banner. The Netherlands in the war years 1914 - 1918. Play with songs for the
auditorium and open-air. Two acts with concluding apotheose] publisher unknown, 1931.
45 "[D]e lessen van 1914 - 1918 door ons in gedachten moesten worden gehouden." (A. C. de Neeve, 1. C. van Dijk,
J. A. Eigeman, C. A. Muller (eds.), Nationale Bond "Het Mobilisatiekruis" Herinneringsboek 1914 -1918. [National
Union "The Mobilisation Cross" Remembrance book 1914 - 1918] publisher unknown, 1939, p. 65).
46 Ibid.