THE HAGUE (JTA) — Prosecutors in the Dutch city of Arnhem are considering charging teenagers from Turkish families who were filmed praising Adolf Hitler and confessing their hatred of Jews.
The newspaper Spits! reported this week that prosecutors are considering charges of incitement following statements broadcast last month on national television.
One of the interviewees, who all study in high schools in or near Arnhem, said on camera, “I am more than pleased with what Hitler did to the Jews.” Another said, “I hate Jews, period. Nothing you will do will make me change my mind.”
Their statements were aired on the Nederland 2 television channel. The interviewer, Mehmet Sahin, is a researcher at Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit researching the social attitudes of students of Turkish descent in the Netherlands.
Following the airing of the interviews, the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, urging him to “take action on a broad front to investigate the presence of anti-Semitic attitudes in Dutch society.”
