Four unique photographs showing Jews being sent into the gas chamber and the burning of bodies at Auschwitz concentration camp were not shown in an exhibition at the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam for being too shocking, the Volkskrant said on Friday. The photos, which were taken at great risk to his own life by Greek prisoner Alberto Errera and smuggled out in a toothpaste tube, are the only known photographs in which the acts of the mass extinction of Jews can be actually seen. They should have formed ‘the logical conclusion’ of an exhibition which tells the story of the holocaust in photographs, guest curators Erik Somers and René Kok said. ‘We show how the societal exclusion of Jews progressed from 1940 and how it was followed by persecution and finally, extinction. This ultimate consequence must be shown, no matter how shocking,’ they told the paper. Emile Schrijver, director of Amsterdam's Jewish Cultural Quarter, told the paper that apart from doubts about the educational value of the horrific photos, they were already on show at the Hollandse Schouwburg opposite the museum. ‘It would have been ridiculous to show photos by a Greek photographer with Greek victims now when visitors can see them on the other side of the street. This exhibition did not warrant their inclusion as it is about the persecution of Dutch Jews,’ he told the paper. Errera’s photos were not removed but covered up. The reason for this is that the exhibition, titled The persecution of the Jews in photographs, is going to travel to Berlin where it can be seen at the Topographie des Terror institute from October 29. ‘They will naturally go on show there. The Germans would very much object to the removal of the photos,’ the paper quotes Somers as saying. It is not known where Errera got the camera to make his photos. He did not survive the camp.  More >

A million tourists are expected to come to the Netherlands for the Easter weekend, up 150,000 on last year, the Dutch tourist board NBTC said on Thursday. Two-thirds of the visitors will come from Germany and 25% from Belgium, the NBT said. In addition, a further 350,000 Dutch people will have a long weekend break elsewhere in the country. The coast, boosted by the warm weather, and the bulb fields, which are currently in full bloom, are set to be major draws. The string of Rembrandt-related exhibitions at museums nationwide are also proving popular. In total, the tourists and day trippers will spend some €800m over the three or four day break. Dutch weather forecasters say there will be four days of blazing sunshine over the Easter weekend, with the temperature reaching up to 22 degrees in places. Dutch motoring organisation ANWB says the sunshine will lead to busy roads over the weekend, and that jams are likely on Thursday evening as Dutch holiday makers head abroad for a few days.  More >

The increase in citizen involvement in crime prevention in the Netherlands is giving rise to problems because there is little regulation and no-one monitors what the groups are actually doing, the NRC said on Thursday. Some 700 citizens' watch teams are currently operating in Dutch towns and villages, and there are at least 3,500 neighbourhood watch app groups, the paper said. But according to Erasmus University researcher Vasco Lub, problems are arising on a regular basis because of the lack of policy. He researched the actions of some 200 teams nationwide, and found that two in three local authorities actually stimulate their residents to get involved in crime prevention. However, 'councils often can't explain what the aim of the involvement is and that means that locals themselves are deciding what action to take,' Lub said. 'In both teams and app groups, it is no longer about preventing burglaries but about tackling youngsters who cause problems, or making it impossible for charities to operate door to door collections,' Lub told broadcaster NOS, in a follow-up interview. Among the cases he has come across are the group who used plastic binders to tie up a suspect and locals who closed off a public roundabout because of reports that a burglar had been spotted. Ethnic profiling is also becoming more common. 'There more cases of people who consider it suspicious if someone of Turkish origin walks down a street, and in which locals noted down the number plates of Polish and Romanian cars,' Lub said.  More >

An analysis of the backgrounds of 319 Dutch jihadis shows that many of them had major problems before making the decision to leave, debunking the idea that all come from ‘normal’ backgrounds, the Volkskrant said on Thursday. The analysis, carried out by police researcher Anton Weenink, found that 28% had psychological problems, ranging from schizophrenia to depression, compared with 8% of the general population. This finding means that the ‘discussion about whether someone who carries out an attack is driven by ideology or has mental issues’ has become more irrelevant, Weenink told the paper. That question is central in the case of Gökmen Tanis, who shot dead four people on a tram in Utrecht last month, and who is said to have both a terrorist motive and psychological problems. ‘It is not a black and white question. People who carry out attacks can be mentally confused, have some form of personality disorder or be driven by ideology,’ Weenink said. The research shows that most of the Dutch jihadis have Moroccan roots, come from broken homes and that two-thirds of them have criminal convictions, mainly for mugging, vandalism and burglary. Some 40% have been involved in violence and a large majority were unemployed before they left for Syria. One in 10 has been homeless at some point. The research, the paper says, undermines the theory used by terrorism experts that jihadis often have a ‘normal’ background and in some cases are more successful than the average member of society. This image, the paper says, was fueled by the middle-class hardened idealists behind the 9/11 attacks in the US. Education But this, says Weenink does not apply to the ill-educated jihadis who are taking revenge on their old, failed lives. ‘Their journey to Syria is the latest problematic phase in a life that has always been problematic,’ he said. ‘They were not even successful as criminals, because they were not involved in organised crime. They are people whose lives had come to a stop and who had nothing to lose.’ Determining what drove young men and women to move to Syria is crucial when considering whether or not they should be allowed back, Weenink said. ‘Most of them will have to go to jail and that will give time to find out what their state of mind is… my research shows it is important to take a broad approach to this problem, not just from the criminal justice system.’ Returnees The Netherlands is still struggling to decide what to do about Dutch jihadis and their children, following pressure to bring them home. Dutch jihadis can currently only return to the Netherlands if they manage to get to a Dutch embassy or consulate under their own steam. However, in February, justice minister Ferd Grapperhaus said the Netherlands is ‘looking into’ the option of trying to move Dutch women and children living in refugee camps in Syria to safe areas where they can return to the Netherlands.  More >

Dutch expats on Thursday formally launched a new organisation to fight for their rights and campaign for changes to dual nationality and voting laws. The Stichting Nederlanders Buiten Nederland (SNBN) aims to tackle issues such as remote voting, the 'exorbitant' cost of renewing a passport abroad, the loss of Dutch citizenship and issues with pensions,' founder and chairman Eelco Keij told DutchNews.nl. 'We need an organisation like this because governments change their policies too quickly and too easily when it comes to the Dutch abroad,' Keij said. 'We need to be more visible from abroad - we can't fill the Malieveld like young environment protesters do, because we are simply not in the Netherlands.' Around one million Dutch nationals - emigrants, expats and students - live outside the Netherlands. Similar interest organisations are very common in other Western European countries - with the one in Switzerland dating back over a 100 years, Keij points out. 'This indicates that we are not alone in facing hurdles abroad,' he said.  More >