September 7, 2021, updated 15-09-2021

The radicalisation

of Arthur Graaff

Again charges filed against “anti-fascist”.
  
to index-page Arthur Graaff files

Last week, 73-year-old activist Arthur Graaff called for a demonstration to be held on Sunday 5 September in Tilburg (the Netherlands), on the doorstep of the home of militaria trader Gaston Vrolings, also organiser of the Militaria Show Houten. The police got wind of it and urgently advised Graaff - who had previously been convicted of tresspassing at Vrolings' fair and whose appeal was pending - not to appear in the street in question.

He was assigned an alternative location. It is not known whether anyone showed up there.

Vrolings, who had been informed by the police about Graaff's planned demonstration, gets the shock of his life, when he leaves his house on Sunday evening, around ten o'clock. A tall slender man who looks like Graaff, disappears into the bushes. "Damn," thinks Vrolings, "this can't be true." He grabs his phone, and starts filming the chase.


Arthur Graaff, caught in the act, Tilburg,
September 5, 2021, about 22:00 hrs.

What follows is a transcription of the film footage that Vrolings made at the time.

Take notice: although Graaff is long past retirement age, he is physically strong. During Graaff's arrest for trespassing in 2020, which Vrolings witnessed, several police officers were needed to restrain him. The writer of this article has seen film footage of that incident.

Vrolings: "What the hell are you doing, Mr Graaff? This is stalking. And you know I am not what you are calling me."

Graaff: "Please leave me alone."

Vrolings: "You have come from the other side of the country to my home address, while the police have contacted you to say that this is not proper. I feel threatened.”

Graaff: "[unintelligible]"

Vrolings: "What the hell are you doing?"

Graaff: "... walking up to me in leather clothes? I'm walking here..."

Vrolings: "I'm an old rocker, I always wear black clothes, that has nothing to do with... oh, my god!"

[Graaff starts taking pictures of Vrolings and the number plate of his car]

Vrolings: "What are you doing, Mr. Graaff? This is harassment".

Graaff: "Yes indeed, yes yes."

Vrolings: "You come especially from your place of residence [Bussum], all the way through Holland, to walk around my house. I was on my way to a friend, I saw you walking and I think "this can't be true. This is not him." What is going on here, sir? What is the real problem here? You know I am not what you make me out to be in the media. Can't you see that what you are doing is what you actually say you are fighting against?

Graaff: [silence]

Vrolings: "If you were honest you would know that what I am fighting for is exactly the same thing you claim you are fighting for."

Graaff: [silence]

Vrolings: "I tried to have a cup of coffee with you five years ago, to offer that..."

Graaff: [silence]

Vrolings: "I am still open for having an normal conversation, possibly in Houten, with help. Or anywhere else. If you really stand for a better world, where people can be equal... Yes, you're walking now, but I'll keep walking with you until the police come. I called them. This is going too far...

Graaff walks up to the entrance of a block of flats and puts pamphlets in the letterboxes.

Vrolings: “I assume that this will also be about me, so. I see you are flyering now. Wow. This is not normal. I think I'm going to have to..."

Graaff: [shouts something unintelligible].

Vrolings: "Sorry?"

Graaff: "This is stalking."

Vrolings: "Yes, you are at my house. I live fifty meters away from here. I am here waiting for the police. You are stalking me."

Graaff walks on.

Vrolings: "I don't know what..."

Graaff: "You are stalking me, you know."

Vrolings: "Yes, I'm recording you, because I don't want any lies later on."

Graaff: "And you record that pole too, then." [In the frenzy of the chase Vrolings hit a lamppost with his car]

Vrolings: "I'll tell the police right away. You scared me to death. I am still scared of you here. You are worse than what you are fighting against."

Graaff continues walking to next entrance of porch flats and puts pamphlets in mailboxes there too.

Vrolings [asks local resident]: "Hey. Can I ask you something? Do you have a phone? Would you call 112 for me, with the police? I just called, but I don't see them yet. That gentleman is stalking me, I'm filming him now, I don't know what he's doing, but I'm pretty scared of him."

Neighbourhood resident: "Of whom?"

Vrolings: "There are a number of lawsuits and a lot of fuss behind this. This gentleman has come all over the Netherlands to intimidate me... I don't know if you live here? I live here in this house".

Neighbourhood resident: "Yes, I live in this apartment complex. But you can call yourself."

Vrolings: "I've just called in myself. I don't know what he is doing, but this is not normal.

Neighbour [calls the Netherlands alarm number 112]: "He's on speaker."

Vrolings: "Thank you.”

112-Telephonist: "Emergency centre 112. Do you want police, fire brigade or ambulance?"

Vrolings: "Good afternoon [it is evening], police. I have just called too, but I see no police yet. And the gentleman who wants to do something to me is still here.

112-Telephonist: "In what city?"

Vrolings: "Tilburg.”

112-Telephonist: "I pass you on to the police in Tilburg. Please stay on the line."

Vrolings: "Thank you."

Vrolings [to local resident]: "Sorry to bother you, but you're the first one I see and I really want to film him.”

Tilburg police telephone operator: "Police control room. What is the location of your emergency?"

Vrolings: "Tilburg, [names street and house number]. This gentleman is here, he's standing in front of my door, I still don't see any police and he scares me very much. So could you please come as soon as possible?"

Tilburg police telephone operator: "Sir, what is going on? [Unintelligible]."

Vrolings: "I also called the police five, ten minutes ago. I am organising a militaria fair, and there is a man who is becoming more and more radical..."

When the police finally arrived, Graaff had fled on a folding bicycle. A little later he was spotted at Tilburg station, where, when he saw the police coming, he jumped on the first departing train.

The pamphlets

It is this pamphlet that Arthur Graaff has put in mailboxes in and around the street where Vrolings lives. The houses in the street consist partly of porch flats, where you can distribute a lot of pamphlets to different addresses in a short time.

Click to enlarge.

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Translation: WARNING!

Dear Residents,
Would you buy a yellow Jewish star for €2500? No, of course not.

Yet there is a trade in such horrendous Nazi paraphernalia near you. Such as Nazi helmets and jackets, SS daggers and anti-Semitic magazines. These items incite discrimination, are offensive and unnecessary. And for thousands of people who lived through the war, or their children, Jewish or not, just to know that this is happening is horrifying. And there are still more than 1 million people in our country who were born before May 1945.

That trade is called .............. by one G. Vrolings. According to ...................... this company is located at ................. This man earns big money from the misery of others. That has to stop. He was on TV a week ago at BNNVARA's Kassa. They filmed at a Nazi fair of that Vrolings with secret cameras yellow Jewish stars for € 2500... disgusting... We wanted to demonstrate here on Sunday 5-09, but the municipality wouldn't let us. They stopped us, but he can do what he likes...

Those daggers are forbidden by the way, just like the antisemitic stuff. But the municipality does nothing about it. Now there are over 3,000 (!!!) Nazi articles for sale, often for many thousands of euros. One medal, for example, should cost €35,000 - you read that right €35,000. The state pension for singles: is 1100 euros...

Nazi jackets and the like often cost thousands of euros. But these are things that were used in the worst mass murder in European history - you guessed it. The Holocaust. But Vrolings doesn't talk about that at all - because that's not good for sales...

Earlier this year, some collectors had their Nazi stuff stolen. With a lot of violence, and only 'precious' things. It could happen here too, especially with these amounts of money...

There is a group "Tilburg nazivrij!" now. They are trying to stop this trade. Nobody needs to own nazi stuff as a private person. Yes, maybe if your grandfather had something from the war in his attic. But otherwise: there are real museums for that, and monuments like the former camps Vught, Amersfoort or Westerbork.

So if you don't want this horrific trade to stay here either, please send an email to fpamsterdam@yahoo.com: I want this Nazi trade out of here too!

Thanks a lot!

On behalf of the working group 'Tilburg nazivrij! and the former resistance fighters of the AFVN.nl

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Comments on pamphlet

The address where, according to Graaff, Gaston Vrolings's company is located, is only a residential address.

The objects that Graaff mentions are historical objects. They can be experienced as shocking, but so can horror films, war documentaries and so on. The trade in these objects is perfectly legal in the Netherlands.

The pamphlet claims that in Vrolings' house there are many valuables. This could give those with criminal intent an idea.

The (work)group "Tilburg nazivrij!" (Tilburg free of Nazis!) does not exist. It is a fabrication of the author of this pamphlet.

The former resistance fighters of the AFVN.nl do not exist either. The letters AFVN stand for  AntiFascistische oud-Verzetsstrijders Nederland (Antifascist former Resistance Fighters of the Netherlands). The few former resistance fighters that were once connected to this neo-communist splinter group with a rather dubious history, have died years ago.

The secretary of the AFVN does not respond to questions about this pamphlet.

The e-mail address mentioned on this pamphlet, fpamsterdam@yahoo.com, has been in use by Arthur Graaff for years.

What Graaff intends with this pamphlet, however, is unclear. Was he hoping for a rising, in which local residents would loot Vrolings' house? Or did he have a copy of Kristallnacht in mind, in which Vrolings's house would be set on fire? Is he hoping for other outbursts of violence against Vrolings or his possessions? Or is it just intimidation, in the sense of: I know where your house is?

Whatever the case may be: Graaff refuses to answer questions about this "action".

BNNVARA's Kassa

Graaff had announced his initial demonstration plan shortly after the television programme Kassa (BNNVARA) had devoted a suggestive item to Vroling's militaria fair on 28 August. The item created the impression that only Nazi and Holocaust articles were being traded there. According to well-informed sources, the item was made after tips from Graaff, who has been carrying out rather strange actions for years against administrators, journalists, organisers and war graves that he considers to be "wrong" (in Dutch, "wrong" stands for Nazis and collaborators) .

That Kassa programme item turned out to be very disadvantageous for Graaff on the one hand: after the broadcast, the fair organiser and the fair centre operator started talking, with the result that the next edition of the Militaria Fair will be the biggest so far. The mayor of Houten announced in the media that he had no objections to the fair. Nor was there any broad popular support for a ban on trading in objects from the Nazi era. In fact, hundreds of people expressed their surprise at the tenor of the Kassa broadcast in reactions on news site Nu.nl and several dozens on the Kassa site.

On the other hand, the broadcast also had a positive effect on Graaff, or at least - one could also see it that way.  After the broadcast, Gaston Vrolings announced that Holocaust articles, already hardly available at the fair, would no longer be tolerated at his fair, and he condemned Nazism, fascism, racism and all other forms of discrimination in sharp terms - see Reporters Online, 31 August 2021.

Graaff's messages immediately after the Kassa broadcast

After the Kassa broadcast, Graaff published a message on the AFVN site, in which he states that the Militaria Show Houten is a "large illegal Nazi fair".

This while there is nothing illegal about that fair. But this remark is nothing compared to what he almost simultaneously published on Twitter, on the account of Ronny Naftaniel, the chairman of the Central Jewish Consultation:

In it he calls Vrolings an "unbelievable deceiver and Holocaust denier". Completely fabricated accusations, only aimed at damaging the person of Vrolings.

What is also remarkable, is that he uses in one these tweets the e-mail address "fpamsterdam@yahoo.com" - the same address as used in the pamphlet.


Filing charges against Graaff again

In the past five years, Vrolings has repeatedly filed charges against Graaff. It started with Graaff distributing a photoshopped portrait of Vrolings, in which he was depicted in a very unsavoury way. The court in Amsterdam imposed a penalty payment on him if he did not remove the photo from several sites. In 2020, he was convicted by the court in Arnhem of trespassing at the Militariabeurs Houten.

Because of Graaff's behaviour and statements in the past two weeks Vrolings again filed a complaint against Graaff this morning. This time for libel, slander and stalking.

Graaff seems to radicalise more and more. What started with an doctored picture on two websites has now derailed into increasingly wild accusations and showing up at the house of an alleged opponent on a Sunday evening.

It remains remarkable that "anti-fascist" Arthur Graaff has never been seen in actions against real (neo-)Nazis and new fascists.

 

To be continued.

 

Photos: © Gaston Vrolings, 2021 

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