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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