The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine | June 2017
The Secret Annexe and Experiential Learning Staff Ride: Leadership Lessons from World War II-( Day One- Amsterdam)
Detective Chief Inspector David Annets( Ret.)
The Secret Annexe; 263 Prinsengracht, Amsterdam
Day One of the NJSACOP Leadership experiential Staff Ride following Operation Market Garden in World War II and the Battle of the Bulge- but first, the story of Anne Frank.
In reading this summary, and those additional summaries that I will write over the coming days, please constantly ask yourself ' what leadership issues could be at the fore?' The idea throughout is simply to make you think!
The event starts in Amsterdam by setting the scene for the participants, placing the battle operations into context, and looking at a number of leadership lessons including strength of moral vision and resilience in the face of adversity through an experiential visit to The Secret Annexe, the ' Anne Frank House ' and exploring the contents of Anne Frank ' s Diary which has now been included in the World Heritage List of Documents( 2009).
It ' s worth looking at the situation in the Netherlands at that time under German occupation, particularly in relation to the persecution of Jews. It was actually an unusual situation there at that time, and by that I mean it was a different experience compared to how Jews were being treated throughout the rest of occupied Europe. In the war years in the Netherlands, approximately 75 % of the jewish population perished, significantly higher than any other European country where Jews were persecuted.
Step by step, Jews were being excluded from society, and from 1941 signs started to appear in public places increasingly prohibiting Jews and separating them from the communities they were part of. Anne Frank wrote that, increasingly, her freedom was being restricted, having to wear a yellow Star of David; prohibited from riding bicycles( and for anyone who has been to Amsterdam will know what implications that has); Jews could only shop between 3 and 5pm when all the fresh food had been sold, and a curfew for Jews existed between 8pm and 6am.
So how does all this link to our objectives, set out nicely by our tutor Dean Hollands, a retired Chief Inspector? A quick glance at the agenda showed we were going to explore issues around diversity, equality, freedom of expression, community cohesion, human rights and resilience, amongst other leadership lessons. We were also preparing to meet with our Dutch policing colleagues to carry out a comparative policing study between the US and Holland, both in the current space, but also to explore thoughts on how the police acted in the Netherlands in 1941.
Let ' s go straight there and look at the situation after the Germans bombed Rotterdam, as early as 14 May 1940, a military situation unravelled that was unparalleled in their history, and was so destructive that the Dutch were forced to surrender almost immediately, after a bitter 5 day war. The Dutch Police Troops Corps and the Koninlijke Marechaussee had commenced resistance to the invasion but were soon overawed, and were left in a state of confusion as to their role in the new order, especially as their government ministers had fled to the UK and gave the impression that it was their priority to avoid any conflict with the German army. They did so with the greatest of intentions, as they feared any counter measures taken by the Dutch nationals would only lead to annihilation by the marauding Nazis, whose intention was, as elsewhere, to get the Netherlands to support German National Socialism. Their government felt that a peaceful and orderly society was the best way to prevent further destruction by the Germans, but as we all know now, all it takes is for good people to do nothing for evil to succeed.
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