The names of some 425,000 people who collaborated with the Nazis during Germany’s occupation of the Netherlands have been published online for the first time.
These names represent individuals who were investigated by a special legal system established at the end of World War II. More than 150,000 of them faced some form of punishment.
The complete record of these investigations was previously only accessible by visiting the Dutch National Archives in The Hague.
The Huygens Institute, which helped digitize the archive, says it is a major obstacle for those wanting to research the occupation of the Netherlands, which lasted from 1940 to 1945 after its invasion.
“This archive contains important stories for current and future generations,” says the Huygens Institute.
“From children who want to know what their father did in the war, to historians researching the gray areas of cooperation.”
The archive contains files on war criminals, about 20,000 Dutch conscripts in the German armed forces, and alleged members of the National Socialist Movement (NSB) – the Dutch Nazi Party.
But it also includes the names of those who were found innocent.
This is because the archive contains the files of the Special Jurisdiction, which investigated suspected collaborators since 1944.
Hans Reynders, professor of history at the University of Groningen, noted that only 15% of cases went to court and about 120,000 people had their cases dismissed.
“So if a name appears in [archive]it is not certain that the person was ‘wrong’,” he told the BBC.
The online database contains names of suspects as well as their date and place of birth, which can only be searched through certain personal details.
It did not specify whether any particular person was found guilty, or what kind of cooperation they were suspected of.
But it will tell users which file to request to view this information if they visit the National Archives. Persons accessing physical files must declare a legitimate interest in viewing them.
Thomas Boutilier, a historian of 20th-century warfare at Utrecht University, told the BBC that there were many similar commissions in other countries, and that until now access to Dutch records was “more restricted” than in Italy. was in spite of [Italy’s] A highly controversial wartime past”.
He said the plan to digitize the records as originally envisioned would have brought the Netherlands on par with other European countries.
But In the Netherlands there is some concern about personal information relating to a sensitive period of history being made freely available, which initially limited the amount of information published online.
“I’m afraid there will be very nasty reactions,” Rinke Smedinga, whose father was a member of the NSB and worked at Camp Westerbork, where people were sent to concentration camps, told Dutch online publication DIT. , told Dutch online publication DIT.
“You have to anticipate it. You don’t just let it be a kind of social experiment.”
Recent research suggests that around a fifth of Dutch people feel uncomfortable at the idea of children of colleagues who hold public office, and 8% if they discover a friend or colleague’s relative who was a colleague.
“For the children of NSB members, the past is often a traumatic experience,” said Prof Renders.
“On the one hand, because they are carrying around a secret, while they have done nothing wrong. On the other hand, because they do not know that the war What did their father or mother do during the “
Director of the National Archives, Tom De Smet, told the DIT that relatives of both accomplices and victims of the occupation should be taken into account.
But he added: “The collaboration is still a big shock. It’s not talked about. We hope the taboo will be broken when the archives are opened.”
Dr Boutilier said it was “amazing” that the project had “raised so much dust”.
He said the Dutch privacy watchdog had “consistently opposed full and transparent digitization” of the records and said the conflict deserved more attention.
“It has real and often negative consequences, as citizens, for our easy access to the state’s records and its decisions that shape our lives.”
In a letter to Parliament on 19 December, Culture Minister Ipo Bruins wrote: “The openness of archives is vital to confronting the impact of [the Netherlands’] Difficult shared past and coming to terms with it as a society.”
He said how much information will be available online will be limited due to privacy concerns, and that those who visit the archive in person will not be allowed to make copies.
The Bruins have expressed a desire to change the law to allow more information to be publicly disclosed.
The online database website says the list of people still alive is not online.