When Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands in 1940, most Dutch citizens faced a choice between resistance and collaboration. Florentine Rost van Tonningen chose collaboration. A committed admirer of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism, she devoted her life to the Nazi cause and became one of the most controversial women in modern Dutch history.
Born into a respected family, Florentine was drawn to Nazi ideology while still a student. During the German occupation, she married Meinoud Rost van Tonningen, one of the most powerful Dutch collaborators and president of the Dutch central bank. Together they supported the vision of a Netherlands closely aligned with the Third Reich while thousands of Dutch Jews were deported to camps such as Sobibor and Auschwitz.
After the Second World War, Florentine refused to abandon her beliefs. She maintained friendships with former Nazis, publicly praised Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, denied the Holocaust, and became a symbol of post-war neo-Nazi activism in the Netherlands. Her home served as a gathering place for far-right supporters for decades, earning her the nickname "Black Widow."
This is the story of Florentine Rost van Tonningen, one of the most notorious Nazi sympathizers in Dutch history and a woman who never renounced the ideology she embraced in the 1930s.
Up Next in Season 1
-
The Real Dictator in Mussolini's Hous...
Rachele Mussolini was far more than the wife of Benito Mussolini. Behind the scenes of Fascist Italy, she earned the nickname "the real dictator of the house" for her fierce personality, uncompromising will, and influence over her family.
Born into poverty in rural Italy, Rachele remained a simp...
-
The Fanatical Wife of Hitler's Most P...
While Heinrich Himmler orchestrated the Holocaust and oversaw the SS, his wife Margarete Himmler remained one of his most devoted supporters. A committed Nazi and outspoken antisemite, she embraced Adolf Hitler's ideology, visited concentration camps, and never publicly questioned her husband's r...
-
The British Aristocrat Who Chose Hitl...
Diana Mosley was one of Britain's most notorious fascist supporters and one of the few British aristocrats welcomed into Adolf Hitler's inner circle. Born into the famous Mitford family, she abandoned a privileged life to pursue a relationship with Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union o...
