Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Dutch WW2 Queen 'considered Nazi swap for Belgian royals'
Source: BBC
Dutch WW2 Queen 'considered Nazi swap for Belgian royals'
30 April 2019
As World War Two neared an end, Dutch Queen Wilhelmina sought a deal with the Nazis to save the Belgian royal family, according to the newly published diaries of her foreign minister.
By late March 1945, Belgium and the southern Netherlands had been liberated but Belgium's King Leopold III was being held captive in Austria.
Leopold's mother feared that the Nazis would murder the family.
So Wilhelmina considered a possible exchange, a Dutch historian has said.
She asked her foreign minister in exile in London, Eelco van Kleffens, to "sound out" via the Vatican whether high-ranking Nazis could be offered an escape route in return for the Belgian royal family's release, says Michael Riemens who has just published the minister's diaries.
The revelations shed further light on how top Nazis were trying to negotiate their escape from Europe in the dying days of the war. ...
-snip-
30 April 2019
As World War Two neared an end, Dutch Queen Wilhelmina sought a deal with the Nazis to save the Belgian royal family, according to the newly published diaries of her foreign minister.
By late March 1945, Belgium and the southern Netherlands had been liberated but Belgium's King Leopold III was being held captive in Austria.
Leopold's mother feared that the Nazis would murder the family.
So Wilhelmina considered a possible exchange, a Dutch historian has said.
She asked her foreign minister in exile in London, Eelco van Kleffens, to "sound out" via the Vatican whether high-ranking Nazis could be offered an escape route in return for the Belgian royal family's release, says Michael Riemens who has just published the minister's diaries.
The revelations shed further light on how top Nazis were trying to negotiate their escape from Europe in the dying days of the war. ...
-snip-
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48104258
