The National Library of the Netherlands is to include Nazi newspapers dating from the Second World War in its internet archive.

The library says it is important “to make historical reality available to everyone in uncensored form”, and to aid scholarly research.

The move is controversial due to concerns that the publication of the Dutch National Socialist Movement (NSB) newspapers could be offensive to relatives of war victims and might actually be illegal under Dutch law.

The National Library began compiling its digital newspaper archive in spring this year. Every Dutch national, regional, local and colonial newspaper from the past 400 years is to be made freely available on the internet.

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide