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Het Verraad van Hilversum (2024)

Name: Het Verraad van Hilversum
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2026-01-08T20:23:21+01:00
Rating: 3.75

Documentary | 65 minutes

3,75 4 votes

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Genre: Documentary

Duration: 65 minuten

Country: Netherlands

Directed by: Alfred Edelstein

This movie is not available on US streaming services.

Het Verraad van Hilversum plot

In the 1930s, radio grew into a mass medium with live news and coverage of sports events for the first time. During this period, National Socialism was on the rise in Germany. After an effective approach in their own country, the Nazis wanted to use radio in all occupied countries to spread their message. The documentary paints a disturbing picture of the broadcasters from the Nazi takeover on 15 May 1940, and shows how a former radio play director from Breslau, Arthur Freudenberg, in his new role as Sonderführer, placed the broadcasters AVRO, KRO, NCRV, VARA and VPRO under his supervision.

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MisterPink

1385 messages
7068 votes

12 September 2025 at 16:03

Media serving as propaganda channels is as old as the hills. It was no different in the Netherlands, a country steeped in sectarianism. At least, propaganda in the sense of persuading and mobilizing its own target audience. The negative connotation only emerged with the German invasion in 1940. The willingness of the AVRO, in particular, to cooperate with the occupying forces, to collaborate in 1941, and their postwar attitude as if nothing had happened is appalling. The German voiceover clearly emphasizes this last point.