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September 1,
2021 
By Bart FM Droog
On 22 August 2021, a new edition of the Militaria Fair Houten (Militaria Beurs Houten) took place in Houten (the Netherlands), where some 130 militaria traders from mainly the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany presented their wares to 550 visitors. The fair would have passed by unnoticed in our country, were it not for an undercover camera team from the TV programme Kassa that secretly filmed it. In the broadcast of Saturday, 28 August, Kassa showed the highly suggestive film footage. Traders where shown blurred and their voices were distorted. Moreover, the sensationalist programme makers had carefully cut away all recordings that showed Allied objects or other non-Nazi related material. This created the impression that there were only illegal Nazi and Holocaust objects for sale. Yet the Nazi objects constituted less than half of the items on sale, and there were no more than two Stars of David. The effect was imaginable. Some
spokespersons of Jewish organisations screamed blue
murder, and Gaston Vrolings, the fair organiser, was
as much taken aback by the suggestive images in the
live broadcast as the average viewer.
So why on earth make undercover recordings, blur people and distort voices? Because the Kassa editors were tipped off that illegal practices would take place at the Militaria Fair in Houten. Instead of checking whether the accusation was true at all, they went undercover - only keen on filming any supposed evidence, but blind to all the material that refuted the accusations. The idiocy at its best. The Kassa editors in their turn misled Ronny Naftaniel, spokesman of the Central Jewish Consultation, the CIDI and Eddo Verdoner, who was appointed by the Dutch government as National Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism earlier this year, by presenting them with the suggestive film footage. I pointed out to them how the Kassa
editors had shown a very curious montage, to which
Naftaniel denied having been misled and replied that
he had seen a much longer film of the fair tables:
"There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of objects
with Nazi symbols. You understand that a compilation
was made for the TV broadcast. We have not been misled
by BNNVARA. A longer film would have been even more
shocking. Even if the number of Nazi articles would
have been 50% or 40% of all militaria present, that is
a staggering amount."
But what about the statements about the
Star of David? Naftaniel: “Disgusting as it may be,
the selling of Holocaust objects, such as the Star of
David, is separate from that [the report - ed.] It
only illustrates that some traders abuse the deceased
to make money. If they had a bit of decency, the next
of kin of the wearer of the Star of David would have
been tracked down and given to them. Or handed it over
to a museum for free."
"We ALWAYS distance ourselves in all possible ways from everything that falls under Nazism, racism, anti-Semitism and all other possible manifestations of discrimination. The fair is for everyone and its visitors are a reflection of society. Militariabeurs Houten has also existed for more than forty years and started in Bussum at the end of the seventies, from there it moved to Huizen and has now been situated in Houten for six years. It is important to note that there has never been any disagreement and that the fair is first and foremost a pleasant meeting place for those interested in military history. Among our visitors are almost all museums from The Netherlands and its neighbouring countries. Visitors come from all over Europe. Among the regular annual visitors are even people from Malta, Israel, Japan and America. The fair features objects from
all periods of human history. From Roman to
Napoleonic, from both World Wars, from the Warsaw Pact
to current military operations. Logically, there are
many Second World War objects, as this was the most
recent military conflict in Dutch history and
therefore relatively many objects from it have been
preserved. Besides a lot of Allied material (for
example American, Russian, Canadian, Polish, etc.),
one can also find many German objects at the fair. A
war always consists of several parties, and it would
be very strange to leave out the German side. The
Germans simply represented half of the war, and that
story should not be forgotten either. Emotionally-charged material
Important in the above is the
context in which the objects are presented. Not for
nothing strict laws against misuse exist. In a
controlled environment such as a museum or historic
collectors' fair, one cannot just suddenly be
confronted with this emotionally charged history,
which is why these are the most important places where
these objects may be displayed. The social control of
visitors and exhibitors is very important here. Any
idiots with deviating opinions, and certainly
neo-Nazis, would be immediately recognised and removed
from the fair if they expressed their vile views. The
fair receives (also at its own request!) each year
several checks from municipal enforcement officers and
the police. In the 24 editions that have taken place
in Houten, nothing has ever been found that is not
allowed by law. Had this been the case, the
municipality and/or the police would have intervened
long ago. All understanding for the shocked reactions We regret the commotion that arose in recent days by the one-sided broadcast of BNNVARA's Kassa, and we fully understand the shocked reactions of the CIDI and CJO. Unfortunately, the broadcast lacked any context. If one would film all swastikas in for example the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or in the War museum Overloon and present them in the same way to unsuspecting viewers, they would be shocked as well. However, as the reader of this post can imagine, this is not a representative view. The reality is that the fair - like a war museum, for example - is a place where there is a lot of Nazi material, but where, out of perhaps more than 100,000 objects, there are also more than 50 to 60 thousand non-German objects. Although we may not always
agree with some of those who, for whatever reason,
oppose our historic collectors' fair, we would like to
emphasise that we always operate within the framework
of the law. Can the fair and the objects displayed
there still be offensive? Of course they can! But that
can also be the case when you go to a museum. A
vegetarian who consciously orders meat in a restaurant
can also expect to be confronted with something that
he/she does not want to see. Unfortunately, in these COVID 19 times and the strict measures that go with it, we have probably focused too little on checking the articles on offer. The Kassa programme showed that two Stars of David - one of which even came with a pass - were on offer at the fair. These should never have been on offer at the fair. We disapprove of the trade in Holocaust objects and find it morally reprehensible. We therefore distance ourselves from this. It is not forbidden by law to sell them, but we believe that these objects would be better handled in a different, more ethical way. Museums often have them, but donation to educational institutions would be a good option. The exhibitor who offered these objects was immediately removed from the fair list and is no longer welcome at our fairs. We also promise that Holocaust material will be checked much more strictly in the future. The fair operates a strict selection policy as to who may or may not stand there. Living history Finally, the fair is an ideal
place for exchange, purchase, sale and, above all, the
exchange of information. Among the stand holders are
several people working for the film industry and
looking for props. Veterans visit our fair to look for
emblems for old comrades in arms, but above all to
have lots of conversations. In recent years,
exhibition organiser Gaston Vrolings has collaborated
on several publications and last May, in connection
with the important commemorations around the
remembrance of death and the liberation, he appeared
on television in the documentary film "All against All", which also
screened at IDFA and even competed for nominations for
the Golden Calf Awards. This film - which was watched
by almost 800,000 people - could never have been made
without the grant. This also applies to a lot of other
film productions, living history portrayals and
countless books and other publications and especially
commemorations. If one thing has become clear
in the past few days, it is that there is a turnaround
in society. Without even wanting to give the
impression that the CIDI and CJO are not taken
seriously, we are very happy to see that thousands of
people are defending the fair in online discussions.
The many hundreds of reactions to the article about
the Kassa broadcast on a site like NU.NL, for example, but also on
the Kassa site itself, clearly show that the fair can
count on a lot of social support and that the vast
majority of the Dutch population understands our fair.
Are we doing everything right? No one can, including
us, but we do try very hard to do it well. It may
sound strange, but we are grateful to Kassa
for this broadcast. Everything is on edge for a while
and the discussion about historical collectibles is
being held. Especially the latter is something we like
to see if it can lead to improvement. So that we never
forget!” As mentioned above, the Kassa editors were tipped off that illegal practices would take place at the Militaria Fair. Because Kassa had previously covered the trade in Nazi militaria, in 2013, with the trade on Marktplaats (then an Ebay daughter company), the editors decided to take the tips, which came from multiple sources, seriously. Now all previous complaints and accusations against the Militaria Fair in recent years originate from one person, who claims to represent several organisations. But if you take a closer look at those organisations, you see that several of them are one-man organisations behind which this professional complainant is hiding. This person also features prominently in the 2013 Kassa broadcast: it is Arthur Graaff, a retired journalist. Then he said: "Everything from the war of German manufacture we should not tolerate." The past few years have shown what exactly he means by that: the destruction of German war graves. Something that, if it were to happen, would be a war crime in itself, in violation of all the existing laws and treaties of war. If you look at it in a broader
sense, we cannot tolerate children of German soldiers,
summer time, child benefit, art subsidies and the
provincial reorganisation, as a result of which the
Wadden Sea islands of Vlieland and Terschelling were
moved from the province North Holland to the province
Friesland. As all of this is the inheritance of the
Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
Because the sending of this complaint was perhaps not entirely coincidental, but possibly connected to the Kassa broadcast, I asked Graaff if he had perhaps tipped off the Kassa editors about the fair. He did not answer. I asked Ronny Naftaniel if he knew what
Graaff was pursuing and doing. He replied: "I have no
personal contact with the Arthur Graaff you mentioned.
So I will not make any statements about his fortunes.
I do not know him, but I had heard of his objections
to the stock exchange." To top of page
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