Dutch Rush To Research Nazi Collaboration Files

The Hague, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Apr, 2025) Dutchman Michael Schuling has spent years digging into his family's Nazi past, ever since discovering a 1940 photo of his grandmother dressed in a trenchcoat and hat, beaming next to a German soldier.

The 52-year-old is one of thousands consulting files on his family's collaborationist history since archives of 425,000 suspects were made available in January, sparking soul-searching about the country's wartime past.

"I knew that my father was from a German soldier. I knew that. But I never figured it out. I never researched about it... My father didn't want to know anything about it," Schuling told AFP.

Among other revelations, the IT technician found out his father Gunther was born in a "Lebensborn" maternity clinic, reproduction centres set up as part of the Nazis' Aryan racial ideology.

After the war, Schuling's grandmother was rounded up and interned in a camp for having a baby with a German soldier.

Gunther was taken from her and placed in a care centre, from which he emerged traumatised.

"The children paid the price for their parents' choices," said Schuling, who runs the Werkgroep Herkenning association to provide support for descendants of collaborators.

- 'Too sensitive' -

An online search engine allows families to check whether their ancestors are on a list of people investigated for treason for collaborating with the Nazi occupying forces.

But viewing the files themselves requires a trip in person to the archives stored in The Hague, after data protection authorities prevented their publication online.

"Not everyone was brought before a judge, convicted, or accused and for good reason," according to the project's website. Of those accused, 66,000 were tried, most of them later imprisoned.

Even unveiling the list of Names, without context or explanation, sparked controversy.

Many worry that publishing the complete files online could be used against people in the social media era.

"I think it's too sensitive data to make it public," said Schuling.

He wants the files to be available, but password-protected, to prevent misuse or wider publication -- and shield older people who might still be affected by the war.

- 'Jews forbidden' signs -

Stephanie Biesheuvel, who has written a book about her family's collaborationist links, said the Netherlands needed to confront its past.

"We can't look at our history with just a few stories that were all in the resistance," the 43-year-old told AFP.

Five years of research enabled Biesheuvel to discover that several members of her family were members of the NSB Dutch Nazi movement.

Some had even worked in concentration camps in the Netherlands.

In her book, "The Betrayal of Amsterdam", she recounts her shock at finding out her ancestor Hendrik, a vegetable seller in the Dutch capital, was an NSB member.

An article she discovered even indicated he could be the person who betrayed Anne Frank and her family in August 1944, although her own research does not back that up.

"He was a guard at a concentration camp. And he was in... the group surrounding the NSB who were in uniform protecting the leader," she said.

"They were hammering all the anti-Jewish signs on doors and restaurants."

Biesheuvel also discovered that her great-aunt Cato, a comforting presence during her childhood, had deported the mother of a family without any hesitation.

Around 107,000 Dutch Jews and refugees were deported during World War II. Some 102,000 were killed -- around three-quarters of the pre-war Jewish population.

Biesheuvel is determined to ensure this unsavoury part of Dutch history is not swept under the carpet -- she is also fundraising for a museum about Kamp Vught, a former concentration camp in the Netherlands.

"We're grown-ups, this is our history, let's talk about it -- we need to, before it's too late," she told AFP.

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