A search is underway in Holland and Belgium for three Dutch neo-Nazis who allegedly kidnapped a Dutch Jewish actor, Jules Croiset, in the Belgian city of Brugge (Bruges) last Wednesday.
Croiset, 49, escaped his captors on Thursday. He described them as two men and a woman between the ages of 20 and 30, both of Dutch nationality. He said he was held in an abandoned factory near Charleroi, south of Brussels, subjected to anti-Semitic epithets and forced to swallow sleeping pills.
Croiset had been particularly active in the campaign by Dutch Jews and non-Jews to prevent the performance in Holland of a reputedly anti-Semitic play by the late West German playwright Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The play, “Garbage, the City and Death,” was withdrawn by its sponsors, the Amsterdam Theatrical Academy, last month as a result of the widespread protests.
Since then, many Dutch Jewish families have received threatening telephone calls. Following the kidnapping of Croiset, Justice Minister Frits Korthals Altes of the Netherlands ordered police protection for members of the Jewish community.
A previously unheard of group calling itself the Netherlands Fascist Youth Organization has claimed credit for the kidnapping.
Croiset said his abductors did not speak of the Fassbinder play. He said they tore a Star of David from his neck and painted a swastika on his chest.
Croiset said he has been the target of threatening phone calls before and after his kidnapping. One anonymous caller told him, “All Jews must die,” the actor said in a television interview here.
The police said they have received about 200 tips as to the identity and whereabouts of the kidnappers. So far, the only clue is a metallic colored Citroen D.S. car.
While the withdrawal of the controversial play was considered a victory for Dutch Jews and the many non-Jews who supported them, there has been a strong backlash in Holland. It has come from highly respected members of Dutch society and prominent journalists, who have accused the Jewish community of blocking freedom of expression and “cultural censorship.”
Jewish groups who attended a private performance of the Fassbinder play said it may not be anti-Semitic, but could encourage anti-Semitism. One of the principal characters, a slumlord and exploiter, is portrayed as “the rich Jew.”
Richard Stein, chairman of “Stiba,” the Foundation for Combatting Anti-Semitism in Holland, expressed doubt that Croiset’s kidnappers belong to the extreme right wing. Such extremists rarely refer to themselves as “fascist,” he noted. He also thought it strange that neo-Nazis would demand a performance of a Fassbinder play. The playwright was an outspoken anti-fascist.
The Anne Frank Foundation here has urged the minister of justice to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate anti-Semitism in Holland and take legal actions where appropriate.
(Brussels correspondent Yossi Lempkowitz also contributed to this report.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
