Mrs. Florry Rost Van Tonningen, widow of one of Holland’s most notorious Nazi leaders before and during World War II and herself an unregenerated Nazi fanatic, has proposed the establishment of a Dutch equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan as the best way to promote race hatred in The Netherlands.
She claims to have established contacts with the American Klan through U.S. soldiers stationed in West Germany. On Sunday, June 26 the lady celebrated Germany’s Midsummer Fest by entertaining a coterie of neo-Nazis and older Nazis of the Hitler era from Holland and West Germany at her villa in Kelp, a village near the town of Arnheim.
The gatherings have become an annual event at the Van Tonningen summer home where one of the main themes is “the Jewish conspiracy” which is supposed to be the “real power” behind Communism and capitalism, and ways to revive Nazism.
Mrs. Van Tonningen is in her sixties. Her husband, Herman Rost Van Tonningen was deputy leader of the Dutch Nazi Party (NSB) in the 1930s and during the German occupation of Holland from 1940-1945. She was, at the time, leader of the NSB’s “Girls Guide.” Their wedding was attended by top Nazis from all over Europe.
Herman Van Tonningen was arrested as a war criminal immediately after the liberation of Holland in 1945. A month later, he committed suicide in his jail cell.
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.
