Prince Bernhard, Queen Juliana’s ex-husband, insisted until his death in 2004 that he had never joined the Nazi party.

– I swear with my hand on the Bible that I have never been a Nazi, he said in an interview with the newspaper De Volkskrant shortly before he died, at the age of 93. He added that he had never paid dues and had never had a membership card.

However this claim was shattered when a membership card from 1933 was recently discovered and declared authentic by the royal family.

Historian Flip Maarschalkerweerd, former head of the royal palace archives, found the membership card in the prince’s personal archive at his residence, Soestdijk Castle.

Born in Germany

Bernhard, who was born in 1911 in Jena, Germany, was living in Berlin when he joined the National Socialist Party NSDAP.

He married Princess Juliana of the Netherlands in 1937 after meeting her at the Berlin Olympics the previous year, introducing her to the jetset life of fast cars, luxury holidays and designer clothes.

During the war, he led the Dutch resistance movement from London, where the government and his mother-in-law Queen Wilhelmina were in exile.

After Juliana became Queen in 1948, she became Inspector General of the Armed Forces and took on official and unofficial duties in government.

Internationally, he is best known as the founder of WWF’s World Wildlife Fund in 1961, now known as the World Wildlife Fund. He was president until 1977.

Romantic affairs

Two weeks after he died, it was revealed in a scandalous interview in De Volkskrant that he had fathered two daughters out of wedlock and had a long series of affairs. Then his participation in the 1970 corruption scandal was revealed.

– I am surprised that Prince Bernhard kept the document, and that it is still in the royal family archives, said Rick Evers, a Dutch expert on the royal family.

He said that the membership card would not have been known if the current King Willem-Alexander had not approved it.

– This is a private archive, not a national archive. He’s the one who decides how it’s handled, Evers said.

Synagogue attacked in Berlin

Requires investigation

The Netherlands’ most important Jewish organization, CIDI, and one of the parties in the National Assembly have demanded an investigation into Bernhard’s Nazi past, but Prime Minister Mark Rutte has so far rejected such requests.

CIDI said this revelation added another dark side to modern Dutch history, and King Willem-Alexander understood that this caused big waves.

– I can imagine the news made a strong impression and triggered strong emotions, especially among the Jewish community, he said.

A form of betrayal

For personal trainer Jolijn Oliemans (41), who was questioned as he was on his way past the Noordeinde castle where Willem-Alexander has his office, the news came as a form of betrayal.

– It is also a fact that he is always in denial about what is difficult for others, and there is very little openness about it, he said.

Calls emerged on social media to oust the royal family following the revelations, and polls showed that support was declining.

Based on an Ipsos survey last September, only 38 percent of Dutch citizens said they still had great trust in the king. This number is down from almost 80 percent in 2020.

More than a quarter of respondents want the Netherlands to become a republic, and a month ago the royal family faced jeers while celebrating Princes’ Day in The Hague.

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Error

The family is still struggling to recover from several missteps during the coronavirus pandemic.

In October 2020, when the country went into partial lockdown, the King and Queen flew to Greece for a holiday. They returned the next day because of the commotion when the trip was discovered.

Just two months earlier, the king was accused of having no compassion for the plight of ordinary people after he was pictured on a Greek island without a mask and without keeping his distance from others.

(© NTB)