The Netherlands Minister for Home Affairs and Acting Minister of Justice, Dr. Louis Beel, ordered an investigation today of newspaper charges that Dr. Frans M.A. Schokking, Mayor of The Hague, was responsible for the arrest of the Jewish couple and their child in a small village in Nazi occupied Holland.
The charges, originally made by the independent Socialist newspaper “Parool,” and after picked up by several other papers, specified that Dr. Schokking, while Mayor of he village of Hazerswoude in 1942, ordered the arrest of Jacob Pino, his wife and eleven-year-old daughter, residents of the village. The father subsequently died in jail, “Parool” said, and the mother and daughter were transported to the Auschwitz death camp. No action was taken against Dr. Schokking after the Liberation and, in 1949, he was named Mayor of The Hague.
A sensation has been created by the charges and by newspaper demands that Dr. Schokking resign as Mayor. Some newspapers, however, have swung to his defense., claiming that he was a “good patriot” during the occupation and that he helped people aide from the Nazis.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
