Time between end of WW2 and trial of Dutch Nazi's often determined length of sentence

The later someone who had collaborated with the Germans in World War II was convicted, the more likely he or she was to receive a lighter sentence. Edwin Klijn, who leads the digitalization of the Central Archive for Special Jurisdiction (CABR). According to him, people wanted to end the war quickly in the years that followed so that they could move forward again.

Klijn also thinks that the mayor of Lichtenvoorde, Theodorus Anthonie Lamers, who was a member of the Dutch Nazi party National Socialist Movement (NSB) and allegedly responsible for the deaths of dozens of Jewish people was given a lower sentence because the verdict was handed out in 1950.

Lammers was sentenced to five years in prison minus the time he had already served between April 1, 1945, and July 22, 1949. That sentencing and other documents about Lamers are a part of the CABR. A list of names was published on Thursday with all the now-deceased suspects who appear in this war archive.

In March 1943, a map ended up in the hands of the German Sicherheitsdienst (SD) with all the Jewish people who were hiding in Eibergen marked on it. Various testimonies in the CABR stated that the map came from Lamers. He denied this accusation during his lifetime.

Initially, a raid was prevented because the Dutch police brought the people in hiding to safety in a remote hole. In a testimony of a civil servant, who knew that the people in danger had been warned, it said: "As soon as I heard that the intention was to finish the addresses on the drawing where the Jews were hidden, I breathed a little more freely."

But the SD also knew about the new hiding place two days later. According to witnesses, Lamers played another significant role in this. The 22 Jewish people who were arrested never returned.

A court document stated that Lamers also betrayed two resistance members who were involved in stealing 276 identity cards for people who were in hiding. He brought them to the SD himself.

Lamers was described in a special police report as a “fanatic mayor who stopped at nothing” if it was to the benefit of the occupying forces. A doctor judged that Lamers was unable to "devote himself to ideals that fall outside the scope of his personal interests.”

The special court in Arnhem released Lamers on July 22, 1949. His wife had requested this, for the sake of their eight children. On March 3, 1950, Lamers was sentenced to five years in prison, minus the time he had already served, leaving less than a year in prison to serve.