Dutch right-wing politician calls Nuremberg trials ‘illegitimate’

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — A prominent right-wing lawmaker in the Netherlands has provoked outrage by saying that the trials against Nazis in Nuremberg, Germany, were “illegitimate.”

Thierry Baudet, leader of the right-wing Forum for Democracy party, which has two seats in the Dutch parliament, made the statement on Monday during a rally in Gouda, near Amsterdam, ahead of next month’s general elections.

“I’m no supporter of retroactive punitive legal action,” Baudet said in replying to a question on whether he supports prosecuting the mayor of Amsterdam for perceived police brutality. “I consider the Nuremberg trials as illegitimate. You shouldn’t retroactively judge people.”

Political rivals and CIDI, Dutch Jewry’s watchdog on anti-Semitism, said Baudet’s remark was “shocking.”

The Nuremberg trials, led by an international tribunal with judges from Allied countries including the Soviet Union, ended in 1946 with the execution of 10 senior Nazis, including Hans Frank, the highest-ranking Nazi officer in occupied Poland. They are widely seen as a seminal milestone in the creation of modern international law.