On 29 April 1943, a huge strike began in the city of Hengelo in the eastern part of the Netherlands in reaction to the German ordinance stating that all Dutch prisoners of war who had been freed in 1940 would be re-interned. Germany was in urgent need
of manpower. The strike in Hengelo spread throughout the country. One of the places that joined the strike was the blast-furnace, where steel was produced. The strikes were repressed with bitter violence.
In total, 175 people died during the strikes; they were shot dead by German forces. Four hundred people were wounded. On 3 May, people went back to work, but the support for the resistance movements and people in hiding increased after these strikes.