Post by Karel Burger Dirven

[Part 1] A drive through the Stryi River valley in Ukraine🇺🇦, passing Pidhorodtsi (00:46) and Urych (05:19)—known in Polish as Podhorodce and Urycz. A lovely valley with a brutal history that shocked the Dutch parliament and public 50 years ago. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the time Dutch journalist Hans Knoop made the same journey. In 1976, he exposed the mass murders committed in 1941 by the Dutchman Pieter Menten while serving in the SS. Knoop revealed that Menten, while serving in the SS, had hundreds of Jewish civilians executed and looted art on a massive scale. The 1976 hunt for Menten developed into a major Dutch political scandal and remains one of the most famous journalistic investigations in Dutch history. Menten owned an estate in Urych. Having lived in Lviv until 1939, he sought revenge on local residents who—allegedly in league with the Soviets—had seized his wealth and property. In 1941, he returned to Urych as an SS member, ordered the digging of a mass grave, and had 200 villagers executed. After World War II, Menten was a millionaire and one of the wealthiest Dutchmen, although the source of his fortune was unclear. After 1976, however, that became clear: it consisted of looted art from Lviv and Galicia, in what is now Ukraine. Following the publication by journalist Hans Knoop and the ensuing media storm in the Netherlands, Menten fled with his wife, Meta. Weeks later, acting on a tip-off, the couple was tracked down; they had been in hiding in Switzerland. Menten was arrested, extradited and sentenced to ten years in prison for the murders committed in Ukraine. Read for Part 2 and more info, here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eMu-j8AR War criminals may flee, but they cannot hide forever. The same will happen to the current russian war criminals. They can run, but they cannot hide or escape forever. Ultimately, the war criminals will stand trial in Гаага, The Hague! If putin lives long enough, we will see him sent on a one-way trip to The Hague—just like Menten and Milošević. May the force be with you! Разом до перемоги, together to victory! Слава Україні 🇳🇱🇺🇦 Presidential Administration of Ukraine | The Presidential Office of Ukraine | Yaroslav Hrytsak | Hubert Smeets | laura starink | Paul Ruigrok | rob bruins slot

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