With eight decades having elapsed since the fall of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, the steady flow of trials of those who perpetrated the Holocaust has slowed to a trickle as the last members of that generation die off.
Nevertheless, the newly publicized archive will give the study of the Holocaust new impetus, experts say.
“It’s a very significant resource for historians, it’s a very significant resource for family researchers, and it’s potentially a really useful tool for education, especially because the online element could provide resources for teachers,” said Dr. Toby Simpson, director of the Wiener Holocaust Library, a collection that was founded in the Netherlands in the 1930s before being moved to the U.K. on the eve of the war.
“It might be instructive to other archives to see the response to the publication of this kind of material,” Simpson told NBC News, adding that the only other example of a Holocaust archive of this scale being opened to the public is the Arolsen Archive — the world’s largest archive on the victims and survivors of the Nazi regime.
A 2023 survey carried out by the Claims Conference — a U.S.-based nonprofit that represents Jews in negotiating for compensation and restitution for victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs — found that despite efforts by the Dutch government that include a new memorial in 2021 and a new museum opened last year, the efficacy of Holocaust education in the Netherlands is waning.
The survey found that 23% of Dutch millennials and Gen Zers believe the Holocaust is a myth or the number of Jews killed during WWII has been greatly exaggerated.
While the European Union’s data protection regulations protect the information of its citizens, the law does not apply to those who are dead, and that exception covers most of those in the archive.
That has caused some disquiet in corners of the country, with local media carrying reports that the descendants of alleged collaborators are expressing concern about potential public backlash.
Nevertheless, an intervention last month by the Dutch Data Protection Authority meant that more detailed information on the victims and witnesses of those named in the list was held back, according to Reuters.
Still, those details remain available for people with a research interest, such as descendants and historians, to access in person at the Dutch National Archives in The Hague.
