A collaborator with Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie has been receiving a Dutch resistance pension of 100,000 Guilders (about $33,000) a year for the past 10 years, it was disclosed here.
The disclosure has prompted a further investigation into the wartime activities of Guillau me Meertens and a decision by the pension authority to suspend payment pending its outcome. Meertens, who lives in Spain, is believed to have collected over one million Guilders to date. He may be forced to refund the amount if it is proven that he deliberately misled the pension fund.
The pension came to light in the course of an examination of Barbie’s activities in Nazi-occupied Holland during World War II, before he was transferred by the gestapo to Lyon, France. He is now awaiting trial there for crimes against humanity. The examination was conducted by Paul Brilman, special prosecutor investigating war criminals in Holland.
Meertens was arrested by the Germans in the early days of the occupation for anti-Nazi activities. While in prison at Scheveningen he agreed to work for his captors. He was released and, for about a year thereafter, supplied Barbie with information about Dutch resistance groups. After the war he apparently convinced the authorities that he had been a member of the resistance.
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.
