“In the beginning these tools of fascist oppression were sublimated as Seyss-Inquart and Rauter let the Dutch people grow accustomed to the circumstances of the new regime. In keeping with the gradual assimilation of Dutch society with German values that the Nazis envisioned at the outset of the occupation, Seyss-Inquart announced that media in the Netherlands would only be subject to German guidance, rather than strict censorship. Newspapers were invited to publish an announcement that they would be free to print whatever they wished.39 Instead of overbearing Nazi control, news copy would be filtered through a government press division, which would offer “recommendations” about appropriate subject and content. The same division would soon offer a range of topics that members in a newly established Netherlands Journalists Association were encouraged to choose from. It was in this fashion that Dutch newspapers soon became dotted with stories far more sympathetic to the German way of doing things, and overt propaganda began to appear as a substitute for daily news.”