The paper was founded during World War II[1] by Gerrit Groot, a Roman Catholic priest active in the local resistance movement, and was first published on 12 October 1944[2] as a double-sided single-page newsletter.
[2] The very first version was published two days earlier under the name De Moffenzeef,[3][4] "mof" being a derogatory term for "German".
[2] From 22 October 1944 it was published as a weekly on a mimeograph owned by a local bookstore (whose owner, Willem Brinkman, was also active in the resistance), and from December 1944 on a printing press in the building of the local Roman Catholic library.
[4] Some discussion ensued over whether the paper should remain Roman Catholic or become non-denominational, a conflict settled when editor-in-chief Erwin Baumgarten and later his brother left (in 1946 and 1948, resp.
), leaving the paper in the hands of editors who had not been involved with its Roman Catholic wartime origin.