Dutch museums tighten security after thieves target Nazi artefacts
Dutch War museums have tightened security and removed Nazi memorabila from display after a string of raids targeting items linked to Adolf Hitler, the SS and the Third Reich.
Museums in Ossendrecht, in north Brabant, and in Beek, Limburg were ransacked in recent days and months in what are suspected to be burglaries-to-order for collectors.
Thieves took items worth hundreds of thousands of euros from the Oorlogsmuseum in Ossendrecht two weeks ago. Irreplaceable SS uniforms and weapons, including a rare Fallschirmjägergewehr, a German paratrooper’s rifle worth £45,000, were stolen.
About €1.5m-worth of wartime memorabilia was also stolen in August from the Eyewitness Museum in Beek, which has led to a string of other museums increasing security precautions.
“SS uniforms, daggers, helmets, emblems, caps, parachutes, firearms, binoculars, you name it. There’s nothing left. [It was all] German stuff, they didn’t take anything from the allies,” said, Jan de Jonge, owner of the Oorlogsmuseum museum.
“The price of German war commodities has risen faster than that of Shell in the past twenty years,” said Erik van den Dungen, director of the Overloon War Museum.
“I think a collector is active in the background [...] A Fallschirmjäger rifle, for example, is the Rolex among war gear. ”
The Overloon War Museum has now returned two rare books, including the Book of the Dead from Auschwitz, which it had on loan from the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation in Amsterdam.
Arnhem War Museum plans to set up roadblocks so that large vehicles cannot get into the site to carry out large scale burglaries of the type that has shocked the tight-knit community of museum owners.
The 1940-1945 War Museum in Loon op Zand has removed forks belonging to Adolf Hitler and SS leader Heinrich Himmler from display. Relics from the Hitler Youth and SS uniforms have been stowed away and a new security door installed.
“It is very disturbing, every museum has its concerns,” said John Meulenbroeks, the director at the Museum De Bewogen Jaren in Hooge Mierde, in north Brabant. “It seems like this is on request.”
Both of the recent raids bear the hallmarks of meticulously planned raids. Despite Mr de Jonge living next door to his museum, which is his life’s work, the burglars were able to break in without waking him.
They drilled holes in the wall at the rear of the museum to reach a handle and open a door. They then stripped out “the heart” of his collection, he said, which took him more than 60 years to build.
"They took items that can be traded internationally. The collection was private and not insured," Mr de Jonge said.
The front door of the Eyewitness Museum 93 miles away was rammed by a gang of six men, who targeted specific items in their six minute raid.
Wim Seelen, the museum’s owner, said, “They knew what they were looking for. The only thing I can come up with is that someone ordered it.
“The collection consists only of original pieces and a number of masterpieces that are very rare and precious,” he added, “ Many of the stolen items are so unique that you cannot sell them. Our world is a small one.”
