Dutch Apologize To Jews

From Yahoo News:
"Dutch urged to apologize for Jewish deportations"

Outspoken Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders called on the government Wednesday to apologize for the country's "passive" response to the mass deportations of Jews by Nazi occupiers during World War II. The move is likely to re-ignite debate about Dutch attitudes to the wartime persecution of the country's Jewish population. Of the 140,000 Jews who lived in the Netherlands before the war, more than 100,000 were deported and murdered. About 30,000 Jews live here now, out of a total population of nearly 17 million. Spokesman Chris Breedveld said the government would carefully study and respond to Wilders' questions. One of the former ministers, Els Borst, says in an interview for the book, "Judging the Netherlands" by Manfred Gerstenfeld, that she believes the response by the Dutch wartime government in exile would have been tougher had Nazis been deporting Catholics or Protestants. Borst, who as health minister was involved in negotiations in the 1990s on reparations for Jews, said wartime prime minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy and Queen Wilhelmina should have appealed from their administration in exile in London for Dutch people to do more to protect Jews. "The government's stance shows that they, along with many others, saw Jewish Dutch citizens as a special group and thought: 'We have real Dutch people and we have Jewish Dutch people,'" Borst said in an interview, a copy of which author Gerstenfeld emailed to The Associated Press. The Dutch government agreed in 2000 to pay $180 million in restitution to Jews and then-Prime Minister Wim Kok expressed regret for the way the Dutch treated Jews after the war. Ronny Naftaniel, director of one of the Netherlands' main Jewish groups, the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, said Jews would welcome an apology for the "passive" attitude of the monarchy and government in exile, though his group has not officially called for one. "The Dutch government in exile was terribly passive and the Dutch queen at the time, Wilhelmina, hardly spoke a word about Jewish suffering in the Netherlands," Naftaniel said.

^ I have to agree with Mr. Wilders in this case. The Dutch Government and Queen during the war should have placed emphasis on what was happening to ALL Dutch citizens. You would think that in the 21st Century countries would be willing to admit their World War 2 mistakes as the war ended 67 years ago. While the deaths of the Jews in the Netherlands during the war was caused by the Germans and some Dutch collaborators the fact that the Dutch Government-in-Exile and Queen Wilhelmina stood by and did nothing to stop the deporations and killing or alerting the world to what was happening makes them just as guilty. The Dutch Government and current Queen (Beatrix) owe it to the Dutch Jewish victims and survivors to admit the guilt and work to make sure this dark spot in Dutch history and resolved. ^

http://news.yahoo.com/dutch-urged-apologize-jewish-deportations-113037333.html