10 May 1940.

The Second World War is underway as Nazi Germany invades the neutral  Netherlands, culminating on 14 May with the destruction of Rotterdam’s historic centre.

Dutch  forces surrender one day later.

Soon after, the Nazis occupy the country and introduce anti-Jewish  laws.

Arrests follow, and in July 1942, systematic deportations to concentration camps begin.

Across the Netherlands, ordinary citizens begin to resist, working in secrecy, hiding those  in danger, and risking their lives to oppose the occupation.

But not everyone follows this  path.

Some Dutch citizens embrace the occupiers, believing in the Nazi cause and rising to power  on the backs of Jewish suffering.

Among them is a young woman who adores Adolf Hitler, becomes  a member of the Dutch fascist party the NSB, and dedicates her life to the Nazi movement.

She  marries the president of the Dutch central bank, living a life of privilege and power while  thousands of Dutch Jews are rounded up and sent to Sobibor and Auschwitz, where they  are murdered.

For decades after the end of the Second World War, she denies the Holocaust  and maintains ties with convicted war criminals, earning the nickname “Black Widow”.

Her name is Florentine Rost van Tonningen.

Florentine Rost van Tonningen, the youngest of  four children, was born as Florentine Sophie Heubel on 14 November 1914 in Amsterdam.

Her father was German and had come to the Netherlands as a young man to build a career in  banking, where he married his employer’s daughter and became a respected banker.

Florentine  grew up in the Dutch town of Hilversum, where the family stood in high regard.

When the  young Princess Juliana paid a visit to Hilversum, Florentine and her brother Wim were  asked to play tennis with the princess.

As a young woman, Florentine followed political  developments in Germany with great interest, reading Hitler’s autobiographical and  political manifesto Mein Kampf and the writings of Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg.

It is believed that her German background was the reason for her strong orientation toward Germany.

In the 1930s, she and her brother Wim became active in the Nationale Jeugdstorm, the youth  organization of the NSB, which was modelled on the Hitler Youth.

At that time, Florentine  studied biology at Utrecht University, with a special interest in animal psychology.

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party came into power in Germany in January 1933.

3  years later in the summer of 1936, she stayed in Berlin for a period connected to  her studies.

There, Florentine was impressed by the Nazi movement firsthand and was struck  by its camaraderie, discipline and commitment.

A year later, she made a trip to the Dutch East  Indies.

After returning to the Netherlands, she left the NSB because she believed that racial  hygiene was not being applied consistently enough   within the party and that party leader  Anton Mussert did not share her concerns.

The Second World War started on 1 September  1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

For 8 months, the Netherlands remained  neutral, hoping to stay out of the conflict.

But that hope ended on 10 May 1940, when  Hitler launched a surprise attack on the country without a declaration of war.

German  paratroopers seized key bridges and airfields, while the Luftwaffe, the German  air force, bombed Rotterdam, killing hundreds of civilians and destroying the  city’s historic centre.

Faced with the threat of similar devastation elsewhere, the Dutch army  surrendered after just 5 days.

Queen Wilhelmina and the government fled to London, and the  Nazi occupation of the Netherlands began.

In the spring of 1940, Florentine was working at  a zoo in Berlin.

Upon hearing of the occupation of the Netherlands, she returned home,  intending to contribute to the new regime.

Shortly after the German invasion and occupation  of the Netherlands, the NSB organized a large “liberation meeting.

” Among the attendees  were Florentine and a prominent NSB member and radical National Socialist named Meinoud  Rost van Tonningen.

He was the second leader of the NSB and after 1936, under his influence,  the NSB became more oriented towards the Nazi Party and took on its antisemitic and racist  ideas.

It also began to sympathize with the aggressive foreign policy of Italy and Germany.

Florentine was introduced to Rost van Tonningen and was immediately impressed.

A few months after  their first meeting, Rost van Tonningen proposed.

The relationship between the couple,  however, was not without complications.

Rost van Tonningen was 20 years older than  Florentine, already married with a child, and there were concerns about his racial purity, as he  was said to have Indian and Black African blood.

Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, eventually  personally approved the marriage.

The wedding was held in December 1940 and was attended  by leading NSB figures.

In the early years of their marriage, Florentine held no public  office.

She fulfilled representational duties expected of the wife of a high-ranking NSB member  and gave birth to three sons in quick succession.

Politically, the couple shared a clear vision:  both Florentine and Meinoud believed that the Netherlands was a lost part of Germany and  should be incorporated into the German Reich.

However, other powerful factions within the  NSB held very different views and remained committed to Dutch nationalism, advocating  instead for an independent Netherlands.

During the German occupation, Rost van  Tonningen held one of the most powerful positions in the country.

In March 1941, he was  appointed President of the Dutch Central Bank, a role in which he removed currency barriers  between the Netherlands and Germany and facilitated the transfer of Dutch gold reserves  to the Third Reich.

A wartime report noted that he was convinced of the necessity of the creation  of a greater European economic space, which made cooperation with German authorities easier.

In 1944, as it was becoming clear that Germany was going to lose the war, Rost van Tonningen  became a member of the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS.

In March 1945, he was sent to  the front as an SS-Obersturmführer, the equivalent of a 1st Lieutenant in the U.

S.

Army.

Towards the  end of the war, Florentine fled with the children to the German town of Goslar, where her parents,  who owned local property there, were also staying.

The Second World War in  Europe ended on 8 May 1945.

Shortly after the war, Meinoud  Rost van Tonningen died in prison, where he had been detained awaiting trial.

He  is said to have jumped over a stair balustrade.

Florentine always disputed that her husband  had committed suicide; according to her, he was murdered.

She claimed that the motive was  that, as president of the Dutch central bank, he knew too much about black market financial  dealings involving prominent individuals.

In her book, she even accused Prince Bernhard –  husband of queen Juliana – of bearing the main responsibility for her husband’s death.

In July 1948, Florentine returned to the Netherlands.

She was immediately arrested  but released a month later.

With no income, she initially lived with a cousin in The Hague,  managing his household.

After 1950, her situation improved when she received a widow’s pension from  the Dutch state because her husband had served in the Dutch parliament as an NSB member.

She also  inherited part of her German family’s wealth, enabling her to buy a villa in the town  of Velp and start an electrical company.

She maintained lifelong contacts with many  prominent ex-Nazis and Nazi sympathizers, such as Gudrun Himmler, the daughter  of Heinrich Himmler, and Paula Hitler, the younger sister of Adolf Hitler.

During the 1950s and 60s, Florentine appeared on television several times, promoting  the greatness of Hitler and Himmler and disputing the circumstances of her husband’s death.

She  also continued to publicly deny the Holocaust.

In the 1970s, Florentine became more  politically active.

Her villa in the town of Velp became a meeting place  for old and new far-right supporters.

Solstice celebrations held in the style of the  Third Reich became particularly notorious, earning her the nickname she had carried for decades:  the “Black Widow”.

In the early 1980s, a small circle of loyal followers formed around her and  established the Consortium De Levensboom, aimed at promoting and reviving Germanic culture.

It published a periodical, Manuscripten, openly advocating National Socialism; at its  peak, it had a circulation of 450 copies.

During the same period, she was indirectly  involved in the founding of the Centre Party, helping to collect signatures for the 1982  elections.

To finance these activities, she used funds from her business,  which ultimately led to bankruptcy.

Florentine was almost continuously involved  in legal proceedings.

In 1986, a major public debate arose over her continued receipt of a  widow’s pension.

A parliamentary vote ultimately decided that no special legislation was needed for  this exceptional case, allowing her to keep it.

Her children always distanced themselves  from her National Socialist ideology.

Florentine Rost van Tonningen was 92 years old  when she died on 24 March 2007 in the Belgian town of Waasmunster, where she had spent her  final years after being unable to find rental housing in the Netherlands, later claiming  that her life there had become impossible.

To prevent an influx of neo-fascists, she was buried  quietly in the Dutch town of Rheden, where she had purchased a grave in the 1990s.

She left behind  debts, and there was no money for her funeral.