Minister Bruins of the NSC, responsible for Culture, understands the concerns about the National War Archive but sees no reason to close it or take it offline. He expressed this before the first cabinet meeting of the current year.
The National Archive released the CABR, the Central Archive of Special Jurisdiction, online on January 2. This archive includes 425,000 names of individuals accused or suspected of collaborating with the German occupiers after World War II.
It allows descendants of collaborators, alleged collaborators, and victims to review documents from post-war special jurisdiction to understand their family’s actions or experiences during the war. Currently, access is only available by appointment in The Hague.
In many cases, accusations were unfounded, and 329,000 cases did not lead to convictions. Due to inaccuracies, 25,000 names were removed from the archive shortly after its release.
Minister Bruins acknowledges the concerns but emphasizes the archive’s role in making records accessible. It is not the archive’s responsibility to judge who was guilty.
The archive contains records of those investigated after World War II for suspected collaboration with Germans, even if unfounded. The Dutch Data Protection Authority had advised against putting the CABR online, warning of potential privacy violations.
Consequently, online access was postponed, allowing physical access only. Bruins appreciates the involvement of the Data Protection Authority and hopes for its continued engagement.
The CABR previously stated it cannot guarantee the complete omission of victims and witnesses. So far, 8 million out of 30 million pages have been scanned, with the remainder expected by 2027.
Source: NOS