[citation needed] When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940 and Het Volk was taken over and censored, Carmiggelt resigned from the paper.

During the Second World War he had all sorts of small jobs, but he secretly got in touch with the Dutch resistance and worked for the underground newspaper Het Parool ("The Password").

[citation needed] Under the German occupation of the Netherlands, Simon's brother Jan was arrested by the Nazis in 1943 for aiding persons in hiding.

Jan's death was to change the rest of Simon's life; he would never fully overcome the trauma it caused.

[citation needed] After the war he again started to write columns for Het Parool; he signed them with the pen name Kronkel ("Twist", or "Kink").

Together with the Dutch-Indo author and essayist Tjalie Robinson he is credited with establishing a whole new genre in Dutch literature that found successors like Rudy Kousbroek.