News item | 19-12-2024 | 5:30 PM
Despite a warning from the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP), Minister Eppo Bruins (Education, Culture and Science) has decided to make the digitized part of the Central Archives for Special Legal Affairs (CABR) accessible. He has a temporary provision set up. Researchers and family of relatives can, under certain conditions, conduct research in the digitized war archive in the study room of the National Archives (NA) in The Hague. This temporary facility is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.
The minister recently postponed the planned online opening of this war archive on January 2, 2025 after a warning letter from the AP. After consultation with the AP, this temporary facility was chosen, which provides the opportunity to search the digitized part of the war archives at the NA. The places for this will be limited. Applicants must request access in advance and it is not permitted to make copies of the digitized archive. To make this legally possible, the temporary extension of the public access restriction that was due to expire on January 2 is necessary. It will also remain possible to view the paper archive from January 2 – under the same conditions.
Minister Eppo Bruins: “This solution is far from ideal, but I think it is important to offer improved accessibility, especially to relatives of victims and researchers. The capacity at the NA is very limited. I am still investigating whether it is possible to temporarily set up more places in the country where people can conduct research under certain conditions. This war archive is invaluable for historical research, keeping the memory of the Second World War alive, and for relatives who are looking for information. A new world opens up, because in the paper archive files can only be requested in the name of a suspect.”
From January 2, 2025, the first 25 percent of the files can be found via the War for the Judge website. According to the AP, an environment that is accessible to everyone with text searchability can lead to unlawful privacy violations for living data subjects.
Consequences for the archive sector
The AP’s view has major consequences for the entire archive sector when it comes to the digital availability and accessibility of archives, because archives almost always contain personal data. The general state archivist also points out the impact on the archive sector and citizens. With a legislative amendment to the Archives Act, the minister wants to offer the opportunity to weigh up the interests between public access and privacy when making archives available. This should make it possible to make the CABR and other archives accessible online.
The CABR is the largest and most consulted archive on the Second World War in the Netherlands. The archive contains files of people who were suspected of collaboration with the German occupier after the Second World War. Scientists and relatives of a suspect have been able to gain access to the ‘paper archive’ in the NA reading room for decades, under certain conditions. Until now, they could only request files based on the names of suspects. Digitization makes the war archive much more accessible, especially for relatives of victims, because all text is searchable. This offers opportunities for other methods of research. It is also stated on the website www.trouwvoorderechter.nl context provided for the content.