Half a million suspected Nazi collaborators are named in the Netherlands
Half a million suspected Nazi collaborators are named in the Netherlands
Eight decades after the Holocaust, the list was made public in the country of Anne Frank as a law prohibiting its release expired on New Year’s Day.
Summary
The Netherlands has released a digital archive of 425,000 suspected Nazi collaborators from World War II, following the expiration of a law prohibiting its publication.
The list, compiled by the Huygens Institute’s “War in Court” project, documents the investigations of mostly Dutch individuals, with only 20% ever tried.
This revelation sheds light on the scale of Dutch complicity during Nazi occupation.
While historians and educators hail it as a significant resource, some descendants of those named have expressed concern about potential backlash.
Access to more detailed records remains restricted to researchers.
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"Suspected" as in not confirmed? I'm all for publishing the names of known collaborators, but just suspected collaborators sounds dangerous. I was alive during a regime where "suspected" was enough for an arrest and enhanced interrogation.
Well, "confirmed" probably involves a trial. And I'm assuming the majority of these people are dead by now.
I'm just imagining people being judged for having family on that list. Does the list include potentially innocent people? Or is it all guilty but they have to say "suspected" because the lack of trial?
People in countries around Germany aren't really judging people for this. That stuff is of the past.
And no:
The archive contains the files of convicted criminals as well as the around 20,000 Dutch citizens deemed collaborators by signing up to serve in the German armed forces.
It also lists alleged members of the National Socialist Movement (NSB), the fascist political party founded by Anton Mussert, the Netherlands' biggest Nazi-aligned political movement.
The archive also gives the names of people who were found to be innocent after investigation.
The online database only contains the names of suspects and doesn't specify whether they were found guilty or what kind of collaboration with the Germans they were suspected of.