Government must apologize to slave girls

The Dutch government must apologize for the humiliating treatment of girls and women who had relations with the German occupation during the Second World War. The Stichting Werkgroep Herkenning writes on Wednesday in a letter to Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD). These "girls of the massacre" have been razed, raped and abused.

The facts took place shortly before and after the liberation on May 5, 1945. The women were publicly shaved, so that after this humiliated act they were recognized as a person having a relationship with a soldier German. Many of them have also been raped and abused. "In at least 118 towns and villages, these women have been razed and subjected to many humiliations, with the knowledge of the government," said Stichting Werkgroep Herkenning, a group of parents of Dutch collaborators. "This treatment has had major traumatic consequences for the women themselves and their children."

Norway

The appeal comes a week after Prime Minister Erna Solberg apologized on behalf of the Norwegian state for the treatment of "massacre girls" in 1945. The women were shaved and stained with pitch. Many of them have also been arrested, fired and have been denied jobs. Norwegian women who married a German lost their Norwegian nationality, which did not apply to Norwegian men who married a German.

Solberg apologized at a celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This 1948 document states that no one can be punished without trial and that people are innocent until proven otherwise. In the Netherlands and Norway, the "mated girls" did not break the law.

Stichting Werkgroep Herkenning also linked his appeal to the Human Rights Bill of Rights. "I think it's a good thing to look back and say that the way things were done should not be possible," said Cuny Holthuis, president of the Foundation. "These women have been raped in respect of their fundamental rights."

The foundation's appeal address to Rutte because what the women were subject to was the responsibility of the Dutch government. Holthuis links the issue to the human rights treaty, but also to the public debate about the injustice that men do to women. "It is not surprising that this issue is currently under discussion, as Norway has a woman prime minister and the # MeToo discussion is raging," said the president. "Here too, euphemistically, large groups of women have been undesirable behavior in men."