The Netherlands Has Published a List of 425,000 Suspected Nazi CollaboratorsIn the past, the names could only be viewed in person. But due to expiring access restrictions, theyre now available to anyone with an internet connection People suspected of collaborating with the Nazis were rounded up afterAmerican troops liberated the Dutch town of Nijmegen at the end of World War II. Bettmann / Getty ImagesNearly 80 years after the end of theHolocaust, the names of suspected Nazi collaborators have been digitized and published online in the Netherlands.The digital archive includes the names of roughly 425,000 people accused of helping the Nazis duringWorld War II. The majority of the people on the list have since died, reportsReuters Charlotte Van Campenhout.The names include the roughly 20,000 Dutch individuals who enlisted in the German armed forces, as well as those who were suspected of joining the Dutch Nazi party, according toBBC News Aleks Phillips. Roughly 15 percent of those accused appeared before a court, and the cases of some 120,000 individuals were dropped.Martijn Eickhoff, who directs the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam, is urging the public to proceed with caution when reviewing the records.It is important to look at this archive carefully, Eickhoff tells theGuardians Senay Boztas. Because it contains so many personal documents, this affects people enormously.Experts say its unlikely that anyone on the list would face legal consequences today. But the digitization will undoubtedly ripple through the Netherlands, which is still reckoning with this dark period of its history.The Nazis occupied the Netherlands from May 1940 to May 1945. More than 100,000 Dutch Jews perishedroughly 75 percent of the countrys Jewish population. The Netherlands had the highest proportion of Jewish victims of any country in Western Europe.The country has long struggled to grapple with its role in the Holocaust, but thats started to change in recent years. In March, the nation opened the new National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam. The Dutch government has also issued a formal apology for its failure to protect Jews during the war.By opening up the archives, researchers and descendents will learn about the complexities of decision-making during the Holocaust, Amy Simon, a historian and Jewish studies scholar at Michigan State University, tellsNPRs Rachel Treisman.Simon notes that Dutch people living under Nazi occupation had different motivations for collaborating with the Germans, which ranged from self-protection to antisemitism. Simon also points out the very thin line between cooperation and coercion, as NPR writes.The recently digitized names come from the Central Archives of the Special Jurisdiction, which include roughly 30 million pages of information. Its the largest archive of World War II records in the Netherlands.The list was released through the War in Court project, which is spearheaded by the Huygens Institute, a Dutch history organization, and other groups. The project received $18.5 million from the Dutch government to digitize the archive, reportsNBC News David Hodari.Previously, the names could only be viewed in person at the Netherlands National Archives in the Hague, per NPR. Now, after the expiration of a law that restricted access to the files, theyre available to anyone with an internet connection.This archive contains important stories for both present and future generations, per the Huygens Institutes website. Without digital access, this archive does not exist for many, especially younger generations. Only large-scale and easy access will keep this important archive with all facets of the war relevant, and allow us to continue learning from the past.The Central Archives of the Special Jurisdiction includes more than just namesit also contains photographs, personal documents, reports and full dossiers on those accused of collaborating with the Nazis. However, after the groups working on the project received a warning from the Dutch Data Protection Authority, they decided to only publish the list of names, per Reuters.Some in the Netherlands have opposed the digitization, while others feel it's time for the country to grapple with its past.For years, the whole theme of collaboration has been a kind of taboo, Edwin Klijn, the War in Court project leader, told theNew York Times Nina Siegal in 2023. We dont talk about collaboration that much, but were now 80 years further and its time for us to face this dark part of the war.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Archives, Crime, European History, Germany, Historical Documents, History, Holocaust, Law, Nazis, Netherlands, World War II