Willem Wilbrink wartime claims controversy

Historians and institutions have begun questioning the wartime claims of Willem Wilbrink, a 99-year-old who asserted he was a resistance member who saved dozens of lives while held in the Dachau concentration camp during World War II. The NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies noted that Wilbrink’s name is absent from detailed Nazi administration records for the camp. The Netherlands Dachau Committee indicated it has held doubts regarding the veracity of his stories since 2024, describing certain biographical details as “impossible” to verify. Wilbrink has dismissed these inquiries as “slander and libel.”

Following investigations into the improbability of his accounts, major retailers including Amazon, Bol.com, and Bruna have withdrawn his biography, ‘Getekend voor het leven in Dachau en Indië’, from their platforms. Research published by Historisch Nieuwsblad highlighted discrepancies such as the absence of a recorded camp number and the fact that other survivors had no recollection of his claims. The publisher, White Elephant Media, requested the removal of the book following these findings.