Relatives of people who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II have urged officials to be extremely careful when placing information about their ancestors online, Trouw reported on Tuesday.

Under Dutch law, the archives about the thousands of collaborators can be placed online from 2025, but some of their children and grandchildren are concerned about the way they could be used, the paper said.

Instead, they say the information should initially only be made available via libraries, town halls, and official archives which should prevent people looking to find out more about their neighbours or who are in search of scandal. 

The original archive includes some 30 million documents, photos, diaries and letters from people who collaborated with the Nazis, as well as statements from neighbours and friends. 

“We have asked for reactions from relatives and we notice a certain reluctance,” Jeroen Saris, from the relatives organisation Werkgroep Herkenning, told broadcaster NOS.

“If you [release the documents] more gradually, you can monitor the reactions and the impact. We think this is a more humane way of dealing with sensitive information such as major family secrets.” 

Saris himself backs making the entire archive public. “This is the only way we can research what happened during this period,” he said. None of the relatives are opposed to publishing the documents. They just have concerns about how it is done, he said.

The Werkgroep Herkenning does think that relatives should be able to appeal against placing certain documents online in serious cases, such as betrayal within a family itself.