King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands confessed that he is not bad at imitations and, specifically, that his daughters find it very amusing to listen to him with the tone of voice and expressions that characterized their maternal grandfather, Prince Bernard. It was one of the revelations made in a series of podcasts on the occasion of his tenth anniversary on the throne with which the monarch tried to showcase his most personal side.
Today he would probably prefer not to mention his ancestor. Because in the Netherlands the news has caused a deep impression that the card has been found that would confirm what was a persistent rumor throughout the life of Bernard of Holland: his membership in the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP, in its German acronym), the group led by Adolf Hitler, before his marriage to Princess Juliana. Many Dutch historians have always maintained the certainty of this stain on the aristocrat’s biography. But his role during the Second World War, already as royal consort of the Netherlands, facing Nazi Germany, made him a figure of enormous popularity in his adopted nation, which is why rumors about his past in the ranks of the NSDAP did not harm his public image. However, what is most surprising about this matter is that Bernard of Holland denied with Numantine insistence until his death, in 2004, that such a sambenito was true: “I can declare with my hand on the Bible that I was never a Nazi. I never paid for being a member of the party, I never had a party card.
That is why now what many citizens regret is that Queen Juliana’s husband maintained the lie throughout his life instead of having assumed his own biography and having carried out some gesture of contrition.
A copy of Prince Bernard’s Nazi card was found in the 1990s in the United States. And recently the original, the authentic one, was found in the personal archive of the current king’s own grandfather. The discoverer was Flip Maarschalkerweerd, former director of the Royal Archives, who revealed it this week, while presenting his book De Achertblijvers (Those Left Behind). The renowned historian has long been scrutinizing the documents of the Orange, the reigning dynasty, corresponding to World War II, with the permission of William Alexander, who is determined that all information related to his ancestors with historical interest is accessible to the general public. of citizens, although this may have opened Pandora’s box, as has just happened at the first opportunity.
Bernard of Lippe-Biesterfeld was born in 1911 in what was then the German principality of Lippe. With the end of the First World War, the monarchy was abolished in this small territory. The aristocrat met Princess Juliana of Holland in 1936, during the Olympic Games held in Germany. The crush was instantaneous. To the then Queen Wilhelmina he seemed a suitable candidate for her heir, since he was a prince from an ancient lineage of Protestant religion, although the marriage caused some debate since there were already significant misgivings in the Netherlands towards Hitler’s Germany. that he had not yet shown all his teeth.
But the dark years in the biography of Bernard of Lippe are those immediately preceding. That stage of youth in which it is believed that the prince was affiliated with several National Socialist organizations. His supporters would defend him over time, arguing that membership was almost obligatory at that time in certain spheres, even though he did not sympathize with Hitler’s ideology.
The reality, in fact, is that, after his wedding to Princess Juliana in November 1936, Bernardo emerged as a combative figure against everything that smacked of Nazism. Not so many of his direct relatives, including his younger brother, who stood out until the end of World War II for being ardent supporters of Hitler.
In the early stages of the German occupation of the Netherlands, in the spring of 1940, the prince achieved great celebrity as he organized, submachine gun in hand, the royal guard to shoot at the invading planes. And during the almost five years, in the midst of the conflict, that the Orange had to live in exile – in the United Kingdom and Canada -, Bernardo stood out as a pilot with the Royal Air Force, participating in several attack and reconnaissance operations over occupied territory, as well as to carry out important work to organize the Dutch resistance movement. All this made him a true war hero.
In 1948, Juliana became queen, which meant that Bernardo was prince consort of the Netherlands until 1980, the year in which the sovereign abdicated in favor of his first-born daughter, Beatrice. In the political field, the prince developed an outstanding diplomatic role that earned him great popularity. On a strictly personal level, however, countless disagreements would come to light in the marriage. Some of Bernardo’s long romances that shook the foundations of the Palace are more than documented, especially due to the existence of two daughters resulting from those relationships, whom the prince ended up recognizing as his own. Although if something tarnished his reputation forever it was the Lockheed scandal, uncovered in 1976, when it was learned that the consort had accepted a commission of more than a million dollars from the American aeronautical engineering company to influence the Dutch Government in the purchase of several combat aircraft. The case was never brought to justice due to the queen’s threat to abdicate if the authorities of the time took it to court.
Now another trial is opening on the prince, that of Dutch public opinion, regarding a biography that throws up more and more questions.
