Wiesenthal Centre to Dutch Interior Minister: “Stop Fiscal Persecution of 86 Year Old Holocaust Survivor”

January 8, 2018

“Redeem the land of Anne Frank by ending the Dutch fiscal obscene demands on a 138 euro ($156) monthly German compensation.”

Paris

In a letter congratulating Netherland’s Interior Minister, Kaysa Ollengren, on her appointment, Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed outrage at an incomprehensible “violation of the humanitarian values ostensibly propended by the Netherlands.”

Samuels lamented that “your tax authority apparently demands a fiscal percentage of the 138 euros ($156) monthly compensation paid by Germany to 86 year old Inge Prenzlau, for her suffering as an 11 year old slave labourer.”

The letter added, “reportedly, your government coalition partner, the DGG party, has argued that a concession to Ms. Prenzlau would set a precedent,” continuing, “On the other hand, on 1 January, The Hague municipality launched a 2.6 million euro ‘moral restitution’ fund to justifiably return property taxes demanded from Jewish Holocaust survivors since the end of World War II. The City’s statement declares that: ‘Now the Municipality sees that this approach was too one-sided and showed no understanding for the suffering and horrors experienced by the Jewish community’.”

The Centre argued that “this dichotomy is redolent of the wartime contradictions between righteousness and collaboration under Nazi Occupation.”

“We urge you to redeem the land of Anne Frank by influencing your government to take the humanitarian route to ending the obscene Dutch fiscal persecution of senior citizen Inge Prenzlau,” concluded Samuels.

For further information, contact Shimon Samuels at +33 609 770 158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).