RIGHT/WRONG
1 December 2023 – 22 September 2024
The exhibition RIGHT/WRONG took you to the post-war Netherlands. Immediately after liberation, alleged traitors were arrested en masse and their assets were put under administration, awaiting the court’s decision. All residents who were German nationals were declared enemies of the state and their property and assets were transferred to the Dutch state.
In 1945, the Dutch Property Administration Institute (known as the NBI) was established to track down, administer and, if possible, liquidate the assets of these enemies and traitors. The aim was to raise as much money as possible to compensate for war damage and pay for the reconstruction of the Netherlands.
The NBI, part of the Council for the Restoration of Rights, was also given the task of administering the assets of so-called ‘absentee owners’, mainly Jewish people who had been forced to leave their homes, household effects and businesses behind during the war, and whose possessions had been expropriated or stolen by the occupying forces, or looted by others.
The starting point of post-war government policy was that war victims (and their relatives) should get back what had been taken from them. And the enemy had to pay for it.
The exhibition
RIGHT/WRONG focused on the stories of three groups of people who came into contact with the NBI: enemy subjects, alleged traitors and absentee owners (and their relatives). Their stories were reconstructed based on NBI files and eight people were highlighted. The corresponding object was scanned in 3D and the film began with the story of one the eight people.
Each NBI file was brought to life with animations in an illustrated collage style, and the person involved (or sometimes a surviving relative or an NBI administrator) told the related story and their experiences. Objects were also exhibited with these stories, including photographs, NBI correspondence, a diary and confiscated items and personal belongings.
The eight people and their stories represented the tens of thousands of individuals hidden behind the property administration files. The exhibition also featured quotes from ‘victims’ to illustrate the working methods of the NBI and the significant impact of the post-war expropriation policy.
RIGHT/WRONG offered a unique insight into the post-war policy of expropriating the assets of those deemed traitors to the Netherlands (members of the NSB) and individuals declared enemy subjects. The exhibition recounted a part of history that has been largely overlooked and encouraged reflection by raising questions that remain relevant today. The question of who or what was right or wrong during the years of the occupation was the common thread running through the exhibition. It was up to visitors to make their own judgement.
The NBI
The scale of the NBI’s activities is clear from the fact that the institute dealt with approximately 156,000 separate property administration cases concerning assets and property, ranging from a single savings book and some furniture to complete households, houses, works of art, securities, companies and more. There were warehouses full of items all over the Netherlands and stacks of files. At the height of its activities, the NBI had branches across the Netherlands with 2,000 staff members, 20,000 trustees and a large number of administrators. The Tax Administration played a key role in obtaining information about the various assets.
Decree on Enemy Property
On 20 October 1944, the Dutch government in London declared anyone in the Netherlands with the Austrian nationality or that of one of the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) to be an enemy of the state. In the Netherlands, this decision mainly affected Germans. Regardless of their behaviour during the war, they were held collectively liable for the war damage suffered by the Netherlands.
But who were these enemies?
Among the German enemy subjects there were thousands who had lived and worked in the Netherlands for years, were integrated, spoke the Dutch language and had a family. There were also Dutch women who had acquired German nationality by marrying a German. And even Jewish refugees from Germany, who had sought refuge in the Netherlands before or during the Second World War.
NBI and enemy subjects
Enemy subjects could only get rid of their enemy status and have their property returned if they could prove that they had behaved as ‘good’ citizens during the war. It was up to the NBI to deal with such requests for de-enimisation and issue a declaration to that effect when appropriate. This process could take years, especially if a considerable amount of assets was at stake. Declarations of de-enimisation were issued in half of the cases. And in total, the Dutch state acquired 750 million guilders worth of German enemy assets that had been liquidated by the NBI.
NBI and the administration of assets of traitors
More than 300,000 Dutch people were investigated as alleged traitors after the war. The NBI could terminate the asset administration of members of the Dutch Nazi party (NSB), traitors and other Nazi collaborators/sympathizers if, once released from prison, a special jurisdiction tribunal submitted a declaration of termination of administration to the NBI. The same applied to those who had been suspected of such offences but had ultimately not been prosecuted. In addition to penalties such as the deprivation of voting rights and being banned from public office and fulfilling political roles, fines could also be imposed. They were collected from the assets administered by the NBI.
NBI and the administration of assets of absentee owners
For Jewish people or their survivors, recovering property was a difficult and lengthy process. It began with submitting a request for restitution to the Council for the Restoration of Rights. The NBI was tasked with appointing administrators for the assets and/or property of absentee owners and inventorying such assets and property. Ownership rights could only be transferred to heirs and administration could only be terminated once it had been established that the absentee owner was deceased. A major delaying factor was the government’s initial insistence on the production of a death certificate (understandable under normal circumstances). Survivors thus had to prove that their father, mother or other relatives had perished in one of the concentration camps. The Red Cross played a significant role in assisting with this.