THE HAGUE: Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Sunday made the Netherlands' first government apology for the war-time persecution of Jews. "Now the last survivors are still with us, I apologise today in the name of the government for what the authorities did at that time," Rutte said.
He was giving an address in Amsterdam in memory of victims of the Holocaust on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. Only 38,000 of the 140,000 Jews who lived in the Netherlands survived World War II, but no government apology has been offered for the role the authorities played.
The question of an apology was raised in 2012 when Rutte was also PM, but he said not enough information was available about government action during the war and that there was "not broad enough support" for an official apology.
"Our government institutions did not act as guardians of justice and security," Rutte said on Sunday. "Too many civil servants carried out the orders of the occupiers." afp
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