Mulisch, Harry. The Assault

Dutch author Harry Mulisch’s The Assault (Dutch: De Aanslag) covers 35 years of the life of Anton Steenwijk, a Dutch anesthesiologist whose life is haunted by the events that transpired on a single night in Haarlem in January 1945. The then-twelve-year-old Anton and his family hear shots outside of their neighbors’ house, only to witness shortly after how these neighbors—the Kortewegs—move a dead body from their lawn to the Steenwijk lawn. The Steenwijks investigate, and the body turns out to be the assassinated Fake Ploeg, a prominent member of the Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (NSB), the openly collaborating Dutch political party. Nazi troops arrive before the Steenwijks can decide what to do with Ploeg’s body; in retaliation, Anton’s parents are executed and his house is burned down. His brother disappears in the chaos, never to be found again.

The novel follows several episodes in Anton’s life after 1945, until 1981. Anton represses his memories and claims he has no interest in uncovering the mysteries surrounding the chaotic night, but his entire life is shown to be dominated by it. He slowly pieces together the exact sequence of the events, and the motivations of those behind them, through a series of chance encounters. These include Fake Ploeg Jr., whose life was broken by the loss of his father; Cor Takens, the Dutch resistance member who shot Ploeg on the fateful night, and who is still haunted by the war; and finally, Karin Korteweg, who helped her father move Ploeg’s body to the Steenwijk’s lawn.

It turns out the Kortewegs moved the body from their lawn out of sheer self-preservation; but did not move it to their other neighbors’ lawn—the disliked Aarts family—because they were hiding Jews. As such, the Kortewegs made ostensibly the right moral choice, saving the Jews. Yet the Steenwijks were condemned to death in the same move, and as such the entire night and its various actors are hugely complicated; no clear blame can be adjudicated. The only clear group of perpetrators are the Nazis who torched Anton’s home and killed his parents, but even their position is complicated by a Nazi soldier who protects Anton during an Allied raid later that same night, losing his life in the process.

Hence, Mulisch succeeds in portraying the moral ambiguity of life under occupation and beyond: Anton cannot let go, but nor can Cor Takens. Although Fake Ploeg’s death seemed righteous, his son’s life was devastated, and the Steenwijks murdered. Fake Ploeg turns out to have been mainly anti-communist in his convictions, not so much fascist. This is an ideology also held by his murderer—Takens—in the contemporary storyline; hence the ‘villain’ and his murderer turn out to have held the same ideas. This refusal to provide clear categories of good or bad makes the novel well suited for analysis of the difficult figures of victim, bystander, and perpetrator.

The post-1945 parts of the narrative are set against the backdrop of the Cold War, the release of SS-Sturmbannführer Willy Lages due to ill health in 1966, and the Dutch anti-cruise missile protests of the 1980s. Because of this, The Assault could be seen as showcasing an example of multidirectional memory, as formulated by Michael Rothberg (2009). At a smaller, more specific scale, the different memories of the assassination of Fake Ploeg are also multidirectional: Anton Steenwijk’s and Fake Ploeg Jr’s memories and interpretations of the event are conflicting yet complimentary; a recurring theme in the novel.

The novel’s context can also be of interest to perpetrator studies. Mulisch was the son of a collaborating father and a Jewish mother; the Second World War left an enduring mark on him. This can be seen in his oeuvre: from Het stenen bruidsbed (1959), which deals with an American bomber who returns to Dresden after the war, to Siegfried (2001), which takes Hitler as its main topic. Perhaps most relevant to perpetrator studies is Mulisch’s De zaak 40/61 (1961), which covers the Eichmann trials; he was one of its reporters alongside Hannah Arendt.

Author of this entry: Martijn Loos.

Works cited

Mulisch, Harry. Het stenen bruidsbed. De Bezige Bij, 1959.

—. De zaak 40/61. De Bezige Bij, 1961.

—. Siegfried. De Bezige Bij, 2001.

Rothberg, Michael. Multidirectional memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization. Stanford University Press, 2009.

Mulisch, Harry. The Assault. 1982, translated by Claire Nicholas White, Random House, 1985.