AMSTERDAM — In the period after the Second World Warmore than 300 thousand Dutch people were investigated as collaborators, from men who volunteered for the German army even those accused of betraying opponents and Jews. More than 65,000 were tried in a special court system that sent some to prison and sentenced others to death.
Most of the cases were settled by 1950, and the court documents—including police reports, witness statements, and material evidence—were sent to an archive with restricted access for a period of 75 years. Within two years, those restrictions will be lifted and 32 million documents—files on people brought to trial as well as many others that were only scrutinized—will be open to the public.
“It’s a sensitive archive,” said Edwin Klijn, project leader at The War in Court, a consortium of Dutch institutes that support expanded access.
Currently, only investigators and the relatives of the defendants can access this file.
Some archivists anticipate that with greater access, public interest will grow. The archive already receives 5,000 to 6,000 information requests a year, the most within the National Archives, said Tom de Smet, its director of Archives, Services and Innovation.
Most of those named in the files are dead, but usually their children are still living, some of whom may have no idea of their parents’ wartime activities. Similarly, heDescendants of victims may seek clarity about who betrayed them and how.
Sytze van der Zee explored her family’s wartime past in a 1997 book, “Potgieterlaan 7,” in which she described her grief upon learning that her father had been a Dutch Nazi. “There are things in these files that are so terrible and disgusting — things people did to survive, things you don’t want to know about your grandmother,” she said.
However, “we don’t talk much about collaboration, but 80 years have passed and it’s time for us to face this grim part of the war,” Klijn said.
Jaïr Stranders, a Jewish organizer of activities to honor the resistance and victims of the Jewish Holocaust, said opening the archive will help national reconciliation. “It’s always better to poke where it hurts,” he said. “When we want to heal together, we have to look at history head on.”
Dik de Boef, who is part of a panel that will guide the opening of the file, said: “If there is very shocking material in these files, you have to approach them with prudence and care. Children are not responsible for the crimes of their parents. But it’s important to know what’s in these files, to prevent it from happening again.”
By: Nina Siegal
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6695596, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-05-03 20:10:09
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