There are plenty of stories on royals and photos, schools and World War II memories in today’s press as well as more details on Saturday’s deadly shooting spree at a shopping centre.

More details emerge over Saturday’s bloodbath
The papers publish more details on Saturday’s bloodbath in a shopping centre in Alphen aan den Rijn. De Telegraaf headlines with “Targets didn’t have a chance” after it turns out that three of Tristan van der Vlis’ victims were in electric wheelchairs, most of them were also elderly. One 80-year-old man wasn’t actually shot but died of a heart attack.

Nrc.next analyses which papers named the gunman in full and which ones didn’t. Under Dutch law suspected criminals are only named by their first name and initial. But recent high profile cases have led to this rule being flaunted frequently in the press, and the current case is complicated by the suicide of the gunman. Trouw has chosen to write a profile on the mayor of Alphen on the Rijn who is quickly earning his spurs as a crisis manager. Bas Eenhoorn is praised for using the right tone to channel the emotions after the Saturday’s terrible events.

De Volkskrant reports that the owner of the shooting range where Tristan van der Vlis practiced has advised police to remove weapons from the home of his father following the incident. The paper writes that it is normal for shooting range owners to pass on such tips, unfortunately there were no signs that Tristan was about to go on the rampage beforehand.

De Telegraaf goes further and blames his father for failing to intervene after his son developed mental problems. Many of the papers criticise the fact that the 24-year-old gunman was given a licence to own weapons considering his suicidal tendencies. He was admitted to a mental clinic for psychiatric problems in 2006, police should have checked the registers before issuing any licence writes AD.

The paper also speculates whether the gunman was inspired by a novel written by his own grandmother in which the protagonist kills five passers-by at random within minutes at a railway station. Trouw points out the similarities of Saturday’s killings to a popular computer game Modern Warfare 2. So it seems this time reality is not stranger than fiction.

Queen Beatrix visits 'New' Germany
Queen Beatrix begins an official four-day visit to Germany today. De Volkskrant appears to be the only paper to pay attention to this story. In its efforts to cover the visit from a different angle, the paper has chosen to focus on Germany’s love of aristocracy. As the Germans got rid of their own monarchy in 1918 and any conversation about the last German Kaiser quickly leads on to the subject of World War I, which is still a bit of taboo across the border, the gossip columns just love to borrow royals from elsewhere. 

And where there is a royal there has to be a bit of scandal. The withdrawal of an invitation to a banquet for 107-year-old Dutch operetta singer Johannes Heesters has provided exactly the kind of gossip required for German glossy magazine Bunte. The centenarian is popular in Germany but abhorred in the Netherlands because he sang for the Nazi regime during World War II.  Of course, officially the withdrawal of the invitation has nothing to do with the singer’s Nazi connections, there were simply too many people.

The queen’s last visit was in 1982 to West Germany, when the country was still divided by the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain. So this visit is being billed as a visit to the 'New' Germany. Nowadays, Germany is Europe’s strongest economy, the Netherlands’ biggest trade partner and a favourite holiday destination for the Dutch.

World War II stories emerge in lead-up to Liberation Day
Next month the Dutch commemorate their war dead and celebrate Liberation Day. So World War II stories are beginning to feature in the Dutch press. De Volkskrant prints a preview of a number of war-time photo’s published by the Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD) called “The big 40-45 Book” referring to the years in which the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany.

The paper describes the publication as magnificent, it does away with the stereotype black and white images of war. The new invention of Technicolour film provides a surprising modern look to many of the pictures. Many of the photos have never been seen before. They have been found in attics or discovered in antique shops. Some of them were made by German soldiers looking more like tourists; others are eye-witness accounts of atrocities.

There’s a portrait of a Dutch NSB family in the living room with a photo of Hitler on the dresser. The NSB was the Dutch branch of the Nazi movement.  And also a picture of a Jewish man cycling by, wearing a yellow star shortly after it became obligatory to wear them and shortly before Jews were made to hand over their bicycles to the Germans. But there are also pictures of every-day life - boys playing with model boats at a boating pool.

Meanwhile Trouw picks up on a story which had been circulating in the press since Monday. The Nazi officer who arrested Anne Frank and her family in the secret annex, Karl Josef Silberbauer, recruited former Nazi officers  after the war to become German spies.

According to spy expert Peter-Ferdinand Koch, the head of Hitler’s secret service managed to persuade the Americans that he and his staff could be useful in combating communism. More than 200 former Nazi officers became German spies.

Ten of them turned into double agents after being captured by the Russian intelligence agency, the KGB. Silberbauer was exposed by Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal in 1963, but an Austrian court acquitted him because he had acted on orders. His secret service activities were not known at the time. The Anne Frank Centre in Berlin has asked researchers to publish the Silberbauer file as soon as possible.

Headscarves in schools debate continues
On Monday, France became the first European country to ban burkas. Meanwhile Nrc.next reflects on who should decide what Muslim girls in the Netherlands should wear. Last week a court ruled that Christian school in Volendam is allowed to a ban a girl from wearing a headscarf.

The paper writes that it is a problem faced by many Christian schools which are classified as special schools in the Netherlands and therefore allowed to draw up their own rules on issues like this. However, while many of them do not ban headscarves, others ban any religious symbols such as a necklace with a cross.

Ordinary secondary schools are not allowed to ban girls from wearing headscarves, but they would be allowed to ban veils because that would impair communication. The girl in question is taking her case to appeal. She says the school is inconsistent as in the past another girl was allowed to wear a headscarf (before it became such a hot issue in the Netherlands).

One head teacher says it is not so much about the clothing but about what it stands for. Schools do not want to allow orthodoxy into the classroom or alienate moderate Muslims. A couple of pupils put the whole debate into perspective. “This is a school. Clothing has nothing to do with how you learn,” says one. Another calls Muslim clothing a subculture “just like gothics.”

Princess’ first school day provides photo opportunity
Princess Ariane’s first day at school has provided a perfect photo opportunity for the royal couple Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima. In Trouw, the proud parents are pictured taking their three little girls to the Bloemcamp school in Wassenaar (near The Hague) where they live.

Ariane, who turned four on Sunday, holds hands with her older sisters Amalia and Alexia, while their parents walk behind them. Apparently, the little princess was rearing to go to school, but perhaps daunted by the media attention, inside school she is photographed shyly snuggling under her mother’s protective arm with her little finger in her mouth. The headmaster reassures the press that she will be treated “just like any other child”.