Wartime and Post-war Societies (The Netherlands)

The Dutch were not just passive bystanders of the war. They reflected on the nature and consequences of modern warfare and on the position of their country in the world. Their responses to and reflections on the war were influenced by the neutral position of the Netherlands. While reservations about military violence were dominant in popular reactions, people were extremely interested in the details of modern warfare. After the war, commemoration initially focused on the mobilisation and neutrality. In the 1920s the pacifist memory of the war as mass suffering in an allegedly senseless conflict prevailed until the Second World War