The names of 425,000 alleged Nazi collaborators are published

For the first time, the names of some 425,000 people suspected of collaborating with the Nazis during the German occupation of the Netherlands were published online.

The names represent people who were investigated through a special legal system established towards the end of World War II. Of them, more than 150,000 faced some type of punishment.

Previously, the full records of these investigations could only be accessed by visiting the Dutch National Archives in The Hague.

The Huygens Institute, which helped digitize the archive, says this is a major barrier for people wanting to research the occupation of the Netherlands, which lasted from its invasion from 1940 to 1945.

“This archive contains important stories for present and future generations,” says the Huygens Institute.

“From children who want to know what their father did in the war, to historians who investigate the gray areas of collaboration.”

The archive contains files on war criminals, the approximately 20,000 Dutchmen who enlisted in the German armed forces, and alleged members of the National Socialist Movement (NSB), the Dutch Nazi party.

But it also contains the names of people who were found innocent.

This is because the archive is made up of files from the Special Jurisdiction, which since 1944 has investigated alleged collaborators.

The online database only contains the names of the suspects, as well as the date and place of their birth, which can only be searched using specific personal data.

It does not specify whether a particular person was found guilty or what form of collaboration was suspected.

But it will tell users which file to request to view this information if they visit the National Archives. People who access the physical files must declare a legitimate interest in viewing them.

There has been some concern in the Netherlands about the free availability of personal information belonging to a sensitive period in history, which led to the information published online being initially limited.

“I’m afraid there will be very unpleasant reactions,” Rinke Smedinga, whose father was a member of the NSB and worked at the Westerbork camp, from where people were deported to concentration camps, told Dutch publication DIT.

“You have to anticipate that. You shouldn’t let it happen, like some kind of social experiment.”

Tom De Smet, director of the National Archives, told the DIT that the relatives of both collaborators and victims of the occupation had to be taken into account.

But he added: “Collaboration is still a great trauma. It is not talked about. We hope that when the files are opened the taboo will be broken.”

In a letter to Parliament on December 19, Culture Minister Eppo Bruins wrote: “The opening of the archives is crucial to confront the effects of (the Netherlands’) difficult shared past and process it as a society.”

The amount of information available online would be limited due to privacy concerns, and those visiting the archive in person would not be able to make copies. Bruins has expressed a desire to change the law to allow more information to be publicly released.

The online database website says people who might still be alive are not listed online.