Discovery of Dutch prince’s Nazi membership card revives calls for inquiry

Discovery of Dutch prince’s Nazi membership card revives calls for inquiry
Discovery of Dutch prince’s Nazi membership card revives calls for inquiry

Hello and welcome to the details of Discovery of Dutch prince’s Nazi membership card revives calls for inquiry and now with the details

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - This handout photograph released by the Royal Collections of The Hague on October 5, 2023, shows a scan of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands' original NSDAP party membership card, from his private archives. — Royal Collections, The Hague, RvD (Communication Service of the Netherlands’ Royal House) handout pic via Reuters

AMSTERDAM, Oct 6 — The discovery of a Nazi membership card in the name of late Dutch Prince Bernhard, a German who married into the Dutch royal family in the 1930s, revived calls today for an inquiry into his ties to Adolf Hitler’s party.

Prince Bernhard, the grandfather of Dutch King Willem Alexander, died in 2004. He consistently denied having been a Nazi although he did acknowledge membership of several Nazi military units, saying it was common for men of his age at the time.

While there always was suspicion that he was a Nazi party member, “the discovery of Prince Bernhard’s original NSDAP membership card is a new part of a painful chapter in Dutch history,” the Centre for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI), said today.

It called for an investigation by the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD).

“That Bernhard was a member is not so much what caused the shock: most Dutch people had expected that by now. But that he continued to deny it until his death weighs much more heavily for people,” the CIDI said in a statement.

In interviews with De Volkskrant newspaper shortly before his death, Bernhard had repeated his denial: “I can state with one hand on the Bible, I was never a Nazi,” he said.

The Dutch government confirmed the card was found but has resisted calls for an inquiry.

Born in 1911 as Bernhard von Biesterfeld, he became a Dutch citizen and later flew combat missions for the Allies against Germany during the war.

The card, which showed Bernhard first joined in 1933, was found by historian Flip Maarschalkerweerd, the Royal Information Service said. Maarschalkerweerd told national broadcaster NOS he was surprised that the prince had saved the card he had denied having.

“He was a collector, and palaces have enormous attics and basements,” he said. “Perhaps he forgot he had it.”

As early as 1996 Dutch journalists published a book containing a copy of an NSDAP membership card in Bernhard’s name that was found in US archives, along with correspondence showing that he quit the party in 1936 when he became engaged to Juliana, the Dutch princess who later became queen.

King Willem Alexander said the discovery in Prince Bernhard’s private archive could revive painful memories of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War Two.

“I can very well imagine that this news has a great impact, that it calls up a lot of emotions. In particular among the Jewish community,” Willem-Alexander told reporters yesterday.

“We have to see the past as it is, including the less nice parts,” he said. — Reuters

These were the details of the news Discovery of Dutch prince’s Nazi membership card revives calls for inquiry for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.

It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.

PREV British foreign secretary’s concern over former PM Johnson’s meeting with US presidential hopeful Trump
NEXT US military raises alert level for Europe bases: reports

Author Information

I am Jeff King and I’m passionate about business and finance news with over 4 years in the industry starting as a writer working my way up into senior positions. I am the driving force behind Al-KhaleejToday.NET with a vision to broaden the company’s readership throughout 2016. I am an editor and reporter of “Financial” category. Address: 383 576 Gladwell Street Longview, TX 75604, USA Phone: (+1) 903-247-0907 Email: [email protected]