The Dutch Ministry of Finance deliberately destroyed hundreds of archives detailing the wartime liquidation of Jewish companies by Nazi-appointed administrators, according to a report in a Dutch daily newspaper.
The archives, which contained important information for those with claims resulting from such liquidations, were destroyed in 1991 — a year before unclaimed moneys were legally transferred to the Dutch state, the report said.
A Ministry of Finance spokesman said the archives were destroyed “in accordance with the regulations applying at the time. The destruction of archives concerning World War II was banned in 1997.”
These archives should have been kept at least until 1992, when new legislation transferred unclaimed money to the state, said a Dutch lawyer.
The lawyer, who specializes in the restitution of unclaimed Holocaust assets, fears archives of other unclaimed moneys still held by the Dutch state have also been destroyed.
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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.
