Paul Kiès

The interview was incorporated into Nieuwenhof’s article “Paul Charles Joseph Kiès,” in: Mededelingenblad. Orgaan van de Nederlandse Vereniging tot beoefening van de Sociale Geschiedenis no.35, Amsterdam: Nederlandse Vereniging tot beoefening van de Sociale Geschiedenis, March 1969, pp.14-42. The article discusses the life of Kiès (1895-1968) as a professional soldier; as a member of the SDAP, including his conflicts with the party leadership; his success within the (disgruntled) SDAP department Friesland; Kiès’ expulsion from the SDAP in 1937; Kiès’ founding of the association Het Vrije Woord, with the periodical of the same name, and its conversion into the Troelstra Beweging Nederland (TBN); his (unsuccessful) attempts to arrive at a kind of popular front politics with the CPN; his radical change in 1940 to the ideas of the NSB and the Waffen-SS, in which he also involved the TBN, which subsequently started working closely with the NSNAP of E. H. knight Van Rappard; his anti-Semitism; his pro-German radio talk shows as “De Amsterdammer” from 1944; his arrest in 1945 and, in 1948, the conviction by the Special Court in Leeuwarden to 20 years’ imprisonment and lifetime deprivation of civil rights. Kiès died a few months after the interview.