Dolle Dinsdag

Dolle Dinsdag (English: Mad Tuesday) took place in the Netherlands (at the time occupied by Nazi Germany) on 5 September 1944, when celebrations were prompted after broadcasts incorrectly reported that Breda had been liberated by Allied forces.

Radio Oranje broadcasts, one by the Prime Minister-in-exile Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy, increased the confusion; twice, in just over twelve hours (at 23:45 on 4 September and again in the morning of the 5th), they announced that Breda, 8 kilometers from the border with Belgium, had been liberated (though in fact this success would not be achieved until 29 October 1944, some eight weeks later, by forces of the 1st Polish Armoured Division of General Maczek).

Further fueling speculation, German occupation officials Arthur Seyss-Inquart (appointed Reichskommissar for the Occupied Netherlands in May 1940) and Hanns Albin Rauter, SS and police leader announced a "State of Siege" for the Netherlands to the 300,000 cable radio listeners and in the newspapers of the following day:The population must maintain order ... it is strictly forbidden to flee areas that are threatened by the enemy.

Any attempt to fraternize with the enemy or to hinder the German Reich and its allies in any form will be dealt with harshly; perpetrators will be shot.

The extent of this optimism has been hard for historians to gauge in the absence of contemporary surveys, but it can be discerned as significant through researchers accessing diaries and finding an increase in births nine months after Dolle Dinsdag.