Friday was the first regional ‘summer’ day in the Netherlands this year, with the temperature topping 25 degrees in the Limburg village of Arcen. Saturday is likely to be a day of nationwide summer temperatures, according to weather forecaster Weerplaza. A day is officially classed as summery if the temperature hits 25 degrees at the De Bilt weather station near Utrecht. The weekend is forecast to remain warm and sunny, although there may be some cloud on Easter Monday and it will be cooler. But despite the heat, day trippers are being warned that the sea will still be too cold to swim in, the Dutch lifeboat association said. Beach-goers who do take a dip should beware of the risk of hypothermia. ‘Go up to your ankles in the water but not deeper because your body will cool off quickly,’ a spokesman said. The official Dutch beach season starts at the end of May and many beaches do not yet have lifeguards.  More >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >