Military history of the Netherlands during World War II Military history of the Netherlands during World War II The Netherlands entered World War II on May 10, 1940, when invading German forces quickly overran them. On December 7, 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Netherlands government in exile also declared war on Japan. Operation Market Garden, which started in 1944, liberated the southern and eastern parts of the country, but full liberation did not come until the surrender of Germany on May 5, 1945. When World War II erupted in September 1939, most in the Netherlands believed that the country could remain neutral, as it had in
Nazi crimes against the Polish nation Nazi crimes against the Polish nation Crimes against the Polish nation committed by Nazi Germany and collaborationist forces during the invasion of Poland, along with auxiliary battalions during the subsequent occupation of Poland in World War II, consisted of the systematic extermination of Jewish Poles and the murder of millions of (non-Jewish) ethnic Poles. The Germans justified these genocides on the basis of Nazi racial theory, which depicted Jews as a constant threat and regarded Poles and other Slavs as racially inferior "Untermenschen". By 1942 the Nazis were implementing their plan to kill every Jew in German-occupied Europe, and had