Netherlands to open archive on people accused of wartime Nazi collaboration

Some descendants are apprehensive but a historian says making 30m pages of records public is important step'

For 80 years, details of their ancestors' collaboration with the Nazis have been buried in spotless rows of filing cabinets in The Hague. But thousands of Dutch families face having their relatives' history laid bare later this week when an archive opens on 425,000 people accused of siding with the occupier during the second world war.

On Thursday, the central archives of the special jurisdiction courts (CABR), established after the allies liberated the Netherlands to bring collaborators to justice, will open under national archive rules.