The National Archives of the Netherlands announced the online publication, in 2025, of the documents of 300,000 suspected of having collaborated with the Germans in World War II, a highly consulted and considered sensitive archive, which began to be digitized today.
The Dutch courts began trying these suspects after the liberation of the Netherlands, with 20% convicted of collaborating with the Nazis, of which 1,900 with prison sentences of at least 10 years.
Access to these documents is limited by a national law, which protects the privacy of people who are still alive, so those interested can only view the files in a reading room, as long as they prove that the person in question passed away or gave them permission to do so. view these documents, copies of documents being prohibited.
But by 2025, the access restrictions will expire, assuming that all those affected are already dead, and these documents from the Central Archive of the Special Jurisdiction will be available for digital and Internet consultation.
The leader of the project, Edwin Klijn, in statements to Efe, admitted that the publication of the files will have consequences for the families of the German employees.
As he referred to public television NOS, “not only must the technical and legal frameworks be applied, but it is also important to ask what is ethical, for this reason families have also been consulted.”
The project was called “War on Judge” and the files will be published online between 2025 and 2027, with an estimated 152,000 digitized pages per week.
Source: TSF
