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Luns Changes Story on Nazi Past

March 7, 1979
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Joseph Luns Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) conceded that he had been enrolled in the Dutch Nazi Party (NSB) when he was a student in the early 1930s. He retracted his earlier denial after he was shown the NSB membership roster in the archives of The Netherlands State Institute for War Documents on which his name appears.

But it remained unclear whether Luns, who served as Netherlands Foreign Minister from 1956-1971, joined the NSB himself or was enrolled by someone else without his knowledge. The roster shows that he was a member from 1933 until early in 1936. That affiliation was brought to public attention by Prof. Louis de Jong, director of the Institute.

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