As eight decades have passed since the fall of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, the steady stream of trials against those who carried out the Holocaust has slowed as the last members of that generation die off.
Nevertheless, the recently made public archives will give new impetus to the study of the Holocaust, experts say.
“It’s a very important resource for historians, it’s a very important resource for family researchers, and it’s potentially a very useful tool for education, particularly because the online element could provide resources for teachers,” said Dr Toby Simpson, director of the Wiener Holocaust Library, a collection founded in the Netherlands in the 1930s before being moved to the UK on the eve of the war.
“It might be instructive for other archives to see the reaction to the release of this type of material,” Simpson told NBC News, adding that the only other example of a Holocaust archive of this scale open to the public is the Arolsen Archives – the world’s largest archive of victims and survivors of the Nazi regime.
A 2023 investigation by the Claims Conference – a US-based nonprofit that represents Jews in compensation and restitution negotiations for victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs – found that despite efforts of the Dutch government which includes a new memorial in 2021 and a With the new museum opened last year, the effectiveness of Holocaust education in the Netherlands is declining.
The survey found that 23% of Dutch millennials and Generation Z believe that the Holocaust is a myth or that the number of Jews killed during World War II was greatly exaggerated.
While the European Union’s data protection regulations protect the information of its citizens, the law does not apply to deceased people, and this exception covers most people kept in archives.
This has caused some concern in some parts of the country, with local media reporting that descendants of the alleged collaborators are expressing concern over possible negative public reactions.
However, an intervention last month by the Dutch data protection authority resulted in more detailed information about victims and witnesses of those named in the list being withheld, according to Reuters.
This information, however, remains accessible to those interested in research, such as descendants and historians, who can access it in person at the Dutch National Archives in The Hague.
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