The Fears of Driekruis

Format restriction of the newspaper
Due to the acute paper situation caused by stagnation in deliveries, we are forced to significantly reduce the size of our paper once again. Starting Monday, September 11, the Twentsch Nieuwsblad will be published in half its current size. In this context, it will no longer be possible to accept advertisements that are to appear in the same day’s issue. – Management Twentsch Nieuwsblad.

Even if the Nieuwsblad becomes as small
As a tiny scrap of toilet paper,
One finds many a line from Driekruis

Maarten van Nierop (1912–1979) was a member of the NSB and editor-in-chief of the Twentsch Nieuwsblad. He signed his contributions with a triple X – hence the denomination “Driekruis”.

And sees: van Nierop

Maarten van Nierop (1912–1979) was a member of the NSB and editor-in-chief of the Twentsch Nieuwsblad. He signed his contributions with a triple X – hence the denomination “Driekruis”.

is still here.

He writes: In France, things are not going well,
The Bolsheviks are mean
And are destroying everything there,
The Germans previously have
Definitely done much better.

Closer to home, we turn our attention to „liberated“ France. There, De Gaulle had to reshuffle his cabinet twice in one week, under the pressure of the so-called resistance movement, the entirely Moscow-oriented partisan formation. In southern France, the ranks of this formation have been strengthened by a large number of Spanish communists who have lived here since the Spanish Civil War and have indeed been liberated. These gentlemen have formed „requisition commandos“ which, for their own provisioning, confiscate the harvest in villages and continue to raid food transports, just as before the „liberation“. The farming population especially lives in fear and dread. In the so-called „red belt“ of Paris, armed maquis (the French „hidden ones“) have seized factories and put them under their own management. – 16-9-44

Things aren’t good in Brussels either,
For look, the evil Bolshevik plague
Reigns supreme there.

In Antwerp and Ghent, mobs under communist leadership exert a terrible street terror. Houses and villas are plundered. And in Brussels, a large armed gang stormed the world-famous Palace of Justice, looted it, and set it on fire. – 16-9-44

Yes, wherever one looks,
One sees the red Soviet ghost.

Everywhere is Moscow. – 16-9-44

And there’s nothing that offers hope,
For every hope vanishes in smoke.

Shortly before Anti-Russian
Bulgaria also turned red,
For Stalin put a noose around it,
And now Bulgaria is dying.

However, they now have to acknowledge that both in Sofia and in the Bulgarian province, the GPU has taken over, that the Bolsheviks are setting up in Bulgaria in such a way that there can be no more doubt about their intention to stay for good, and that the once so proud Bulgaria will become a Soviet republic in a very short time. – 16-9-44

If this country is soon occupied,
Either by the Yankee or the Brit,
Then we are truly not saved yet,
No, he sighs, „We aren’t there yet!?“

We aren’t there yet!
People might be willing to make many sacrifices for true liberation, but after a potential departure of the German troops, we‘ll get a new occupation here, then we will march as auxiliary troops of the new occupier to Berlin, at the same time help America and England to reconquer India from the Japanese, and then we have to ensure we keep the Bolshevik away, because we might want them in East Prussia, but not in Overijssel, right? Seen this way, the worker woman was right with her “We aren’t there yet!” and there‘s no reason to cheer for now. – 14-9-44 XXX

Van Nierop is now full of chagrin,
You can tell by what he writes,
It’s evident in every line,
No matter how much he denies it,

Van Nierop would dearly love to leave,
(He has already sent his clan to safety),
But he has to stay, that’s the rub,
And he sweats with fear day and night.