Police in Groningen have seized large quantities of books and pamphlets of the Nazi era which were part of an auction sale there this week. They acted on the orders of the local public prosecutor who may decide to bring charges against the auction house for violating an article of the Dutch penal code which makes the distribution of Nazi material a punishable offense.
The prosecutor attended the auction at the behest of the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism in The Netherlands (STIBA). Neither the police nor the auction house will disclose the name of the owner of the collection. According to the auctioneer, the books and pamphlets were mostly on maritime and aviation subjects but there was some Nazi material published for German and Dutch consumption.
The librarian of The Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation (RIOD) is studying the material to determine whether the auction house can be sued by the State for violation of the penal code. The house earlier sent a catalogue of the material to scientific libraries and persons professionally interested in the period 1933-1945, the 12 years of the Third Reich.
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