Dutch Christmas lights
This small set of wires and bulbs was a poignant attempt to celebrate the Yuletide festivities in the occupied Netherlands
A makeshift wartime decoration
Lmost western countries, Christmas is widely celebrated in the Netherlands, and the Dutch even have two versions of Father Christmas, who are celebrated on both 5 and 24 December. Nevertheless, ‘goodwill to all men’ was particularly hard to come by during World War II in the Netherlands thanks to the brutal occupation of the country by Nazi Germany.
The Netherlands was occupied for five years from May 1940 despite its attempts to remain neutral, as they had been during World War I. 75 per cent of Dutch Jews perished in the Holocaust, and the rest of the population also suffered despite the fact that the Nazis considered the Dutch to be a ‘superior’
Aryan people. Over 200,000 Dutch citizens died during the war, not only from religious persecution but also by captivity, executions, forced labour, acts of war and malnutrition.
Essential supplies were scarce during the occupation because the Germans used mass confiscation to aid their war effort and to keep the local population under control. Gasoline and food were the main shortages, but the Dutch even had to hand over their bicycle tyres so that the Germans could use the rubber. It was in this context that the pictured Christmas lights were made.
Constructed in Heerlen in the southeast province of Limburg, the lights are made out of bicycle lamps. It is safe to assume that the Germans had confiscated many bicycles and that the maker was improvising with what remained to bring some festive spirit to what was presumably a rather drab and subdued wartime Christmas.
“THE GERMANS USED MASS CONFISCATION TO AID THEIR WAR EFFORT AND TO KEEP THE LOCAL POPULATION UNDER CONTROL”