By Burak Bir
LONDON (AA) - A membership card found by an historian in the Netherlands showed the late Dutch Prince Bernhard was a member of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, according to media reports.
Dutch historian Flip Maarschalkerweerd wrote in his book, De achterblijvers, which was published Wednesday, that he found Prince Bernhard zur Lippe-Biesterfeld's original membership card for the Nazi party.
Maarschalkerweerd, who is the former director of the Royal House Archives, said he found the card in the prince’s private archives at Soestdijk Palace, the local NL Times reported.
Prince Bernhard, who was a member of a German royal family and engaged to Dutch Princess Juliana in 1936, has always denied that he was a member of the Nazi party.
Juliana became queen of the Netherlands in 1948 and was on the throne until she abdicated in 1980.
"I can declare with my hand on the Bible: I was never a Nazi. I never paid for a party membership. I never had a membership card," Bernhard said before his death, said the report.
Maarschalkerweerd told the NRC newspaper that he was surprised to find the card and correspondence about terminating it.
"Those were German pieces, he said. “You would expect them to be in Germany.”
Another historian, Gerard Aalders, expressed his satisfaction about the unveiling of the original card.
"For me personally, this is very nice to hear," he said.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander had allowed Maarschalkerweerd to access all documents in the Royal House Archives related to World War II.