The Dutch National Archives announced this week that it will make public the documents of 300,000 people suspected of having collaborated with the Germans in World War II, one of the most consulted and sensitive archives for the Netherlands, which will be available on the internet in 2025.
The Archive began last Thursday with the tasks of digitizing and organizing these historical documents. The Dutch Justice began trying these suspects immediately after the liberation of the Netherlands, and 20% received a conviction for collaboration with the Nazis, of which 1,900 received prison sentences of at least ten years.
Access to these documents is now limited under the Archives Act to protect the privacy of people who may still be alive, so those interested can now only view the archives in a reading room, as long as they prove that the person in issue has died or given them permission to review these papers; and it is totally prohibited to make copies of the documents.
By 2025, the access restrictions will expire, assuming that all those affected are already dead by then, and these documents from the Central Archives of Special Jurisdiction will be available for consultation digitally and through the Internet.
The leader of the project, Edwin Klijn, admits that the publication of these files will have consequences for the relatives of the collaborators and, as he pointed out to public television NOS, "not only must technical and legal frameworks be applied, but it is also important to ask what It is ethical, that is why the families have also been consulted”.
Ethical criteria take precedence, for example, with psychiatric reports and testimonies given during police investigations, and given their sensitivity, those affected will be consulted first, especially the children of members of the fascist National Socialist Movement party in the Netherlands ( NSB).
The project has been called "War before the Judge" and the files will be published on warvoorderechter.nl between 2025 and 2027, with the help of new techniques, including artificial intelligence, to recognize and digitize handwriting more quickly. hand. Those involved in the project expect to scan about 152,000 pages per week.
