Nederland in Oorlogstijd 1940-1945 [The Netherlands in Wartime 1940-1945]
- Title:
- Nederland in Oorlogstijd 1940-1945 [The Netherlands in Wartime 1940-1945]
- Alternate Title:
- The Netherlands in Wartime 1940-1945
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Meyer, Hans
- Other Creators:
- Stichting 1940-1945, publisher
- Date:
- 1947
- Date 2:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2333.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2333_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Subject:
- Pictorial
World War II - Measurement:
- 63 x 38 on sheet 100 x 70 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This beautiful and dramatic map of the Netherlands tells the pictorial story of that nation during World War II: the invasion and conquest, the privations of its people, and the heroic actions of its resistance movement. What makes this map even more poignant is that it was issued and sold to raise funds for members of the resistance and their survivors needing help after the war.
The map was designed and printed by Frans Meyer, an Amsterdam graphic artist, for the so-called “Stichting 1940-1945.” (Stichting is Dutch for “foundation” or “trust.”) The purpose of the foundation was “to provide for the moral, mental and material needs of persons or groups of persons who have contributed to domestic resistance during the occupation by act or attitude and for their families or survivors.” The foundation continues to this day, benefiting a broader group of those harmed by the war.
The map was published from 1947 to 1955 and sold for a single Dutch guilder. It was apparently very popular and hung, as intended, in many homes, shops and public places. It is nevertheless rare today because it was printed on inexpensive paper (reflecting its fund-raising mission). Kok 2013, 15.
The iconography of the poster has been extensively described by Hans Kok, 2013, and Roderick Barron, http://www.barronmaps.com/products/1940-nederland-in-oorlogstijd-1945/, accessed October 10, 2017. Within the neat lines of the map itself, images tell the story of the German invasion (right center) and detail the subjugation of the people, with images of labor camps, reprisals, executions, and trains en route to German concentration camps. A long line of the starving struggles north in the hope of finding food, beneath the symbolic figure of “Death . . . an ever present companion.” At the lower right, near the end of the war, Allied invasion forces enter the country as Allied bombers (center) drop food to welcoming crowds.
The map itself is surrounded by immense margins, occupying half the area of the poster. Filling these margins is a set of 20 medallions with images that “vividly depict scenes from the Occupation, especially in relation to German wartime oppression & Dutch resistance activities: the identification & persecution of Dutch Jews; the use of secret radios and subversive anti-German propaganda; the promotion of resistance by pastors & priests from the church pulpit; nocturnal sabotage; the hiding of weapons; German reprisal raids; forced labour; imprisonment in the bleak surroundings of the Vught labour camp; and eventually the final advent of Allied food drops and Liberation - the final vignette top right depicts celebrating crowds outside Amsterdam's Town Hall on Liberation Day, May 5th 1945.” Ibid.
These medallions resemble those in Dutch emblem books of the 17th and 18th centuries. (See, e.g., ID #1016, Zo goat men veiling, 1714. See generally Raybould 2009.) And like many of the Emblemata, each image is surrounded by a short explanatory poem “which can best be described as doggerel” (in old-fashioned Dutch, and with a good deal of poetic license). Kok 15. For a detailed description of each medallion and an English-language translation of the accompanying text, see Kok 16-20.
This copy of the map is said to have “a uniquely appropriate provenance, having been acquired from the family of a prominent member of one of the wartime resistance networks based in the north of the country.” Barron, ibid.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.