Finke came across the existence of the album through the grapevine during the corona pandemic. “An acquaintance, Gerrit Gommer from Vossenbelt, drew my attention to it. He said: ‘Did you know that there is a photo album of NSB members from South-East Drenthe in the Rijksmuseum?'”
Finke continues: “When you think of the Rijksmuseum, you think of paintings, not of photo archives. But it was just there. And because I couldn’t visit during corona time, they scanned it for me.”
When Finke saw the first digital images, he knew: this was something special. “It was a complete inventory of collaborators from the region. A kind of ‘face book of NSB members’, as I started to call it.”
An archive from after the war
The album was probably compiled by someone from the Political Investigation Service (POD) in Coevorden, the agency that carried out the arrests and investigations into ‘wrong Dutchmen’ immediately after the liberation on behalf of the Military Authority.
“The POD collected photos of those arrested, with names, dates of birth and places of origin. The album appears to have been an internal reference work for recognition and evidence in legal cases.” The photos were sometimes taken during the war, sometimes shortly afterwards. “Many people still wear their NSB or Landwacht uniform, others pose with the infamous number on the chest: photos of prisoners, taken in 1946,” says Finke.