Dutch apprehensive as archive opens to reveal Nazi collaboration

For 80 years, details of their ancestors' collaboration with the Nazis have been buried in rows of filing cabinets in The Hague. But thousands of Dutch families now face having their relatives' history laid bare when an archive opens on 425,000 people accused of siding with the occupier during the second world war.

- Senay Boztas

Tomorrow, the central archives of the special jurisdiction courts (CABR), established after the allies liberated the Netherlands, to bring collaborators to justice, will open under national archive rules.

The most visited war archive in the Netherlands has been accessible only to researchers, those involved and direct descendants, but from tomorrow the physical archive will open to general visitors.

For the first three months of 2025, researchers and descendants of victims and alleged perpetrators will also have digital access to a quarter of this extraordinary database - on site at the national archive in The Hague - for the first time.

Relatives have mixed feelings. "It's a bit uncomfortable," said Connie, 74, one of three sisters whose family history is contained in the archive. "I don't know what could come out of it eventually, if people Google our surname."