The proposal to make the Special Judicial Archive (CABR), the archive with files of around 425,000 people who were investigated for collaboration, fully accessible online after the Second World War, is from today in so -called internet consultation.
The loaded war archive, with files of around 425,000 people who were investigated for collaboration after the Second World War, would become completely public and partly digitally searchable for everyone at the beginning of this year. But that was canceled after a warning from the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) about privacy risks.
“It is of great importance that the relatives of victims from the Second World War can find more information about the fate of their loved ones. In addition, I want to give a boost to research into and education about the Second World War and the Holocaust. The eyewitnesses will no longer be there: then the heritage has to tell the story,” said Bruins.
Everyone can respond to this proposal until 28 April, which must find a balance between the protection of personal data and the importance of access to government information and cultural heritage.
In Drenthe the debate about the publicity of these archives is also playing. Many in the region have a personal relationship with the events of that time and the archives often offer the last piece of information for relatives looking for answers about their ancestors.
The bill comes at the moment that the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) pronounced a warning about the privacy risks of making the CABR fully searchable. This archive contains data about people who were investigated after the war, both those suspected of collaboration and the innocent victims involved in the investigations.
In the past year, the digital opening of this archive has already been delayed due to privacy concerns, and now an intermediate form is being sought. Minister Eppo Bruins (Education, Culture and Science) emphasizes that it is of great importance for relatives to find out more about the fate of their family members, especially now that the eyewitnesses are becoming increasingly scarce.
Bertien MINCO, director of Kamp Westerbork Remembrance Center, said earlier that there is “enormous need” for more openness. That became clear when in February she made a call together with thirteen other museums to make more war archives available. “We get eighty to a hundred questions from people who want to know what happened to their family members every week,” says Minco.
The search for details about people who were active in the war, for example resistance heroes, often comes down to seeing archives. The Red Cross archive and the Jewish Council cartotheek also contain valuable information about the Jewish victims from Drenthe, but those archives remain closed until 2046. That leads to frustration for many relatives who are afraid that it is too late to answer their questions.
In addition to the question about publicity, there was also criticism of the mistakes in the CABR. That became clear when the National Archive made the names of a few people offline at the beginning of this year, including the name of Hendrik van Triest from Geeuwenbrug. Van Triest was wrongly mentioned in the CABR as a suspect of collaboration, while, according to his family, he was actively involved in the resistance and also had people in hiding. His descendants were shocked when they saw his name popping up in the list of alleged collaborators. This situation once again emphasizes the importance of care in making these sensitive documents public.
The question then is: how long do we have to wait before archives if the Cabr is actually accessible to everyone?
Until the amendment to the law, Bruins focuses on an interim solution. People with an investigation interest, such as relatives, can probably view the files scanned so far in the second quarter of this year digitally in the reading room of the National Archive (NA). So far it is a third of the war archive. The wish is to make this possible even in study rooms of regional archives.