The Pieter Schelte, named after a Nazi war criminal, arrived at the port of Rotterdam. Photo by FaceMePLS/CC
UPI ARTICLE BY AMY R. CONNOLLY PUBLISHED 24 JAN 2015
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Jan. 24 (UPI) — Jewish leaders in Britain and the Netherlands are outraged that a massive ship bearing the name of a Dutch Nazi war criminal arrived in Rotterdam to work in the European offshore oil industry.
The Pieter Schelte, called the world’s biggest vessel, arrived in port as Jewish organizations asked the ship’s owners to change the name. Jewish leaders said the recent terrorist attack at a Paris kosher deli that left four dead and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is making the decision to name the ship after the war criminal all the more difficult to understand.
Esther Voet, director of the Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel, told the Guardian the timing was “a coincidence, I’m sure, but a sign of the times. We lost our battle to have the ship’s name changed, and we are left eating dust.”
Schelte, a Dutch naval architect, was part of the Waffen SS, the combat arm of the Nazi party’s Schutzstaffel. He was arrested in March 1944 and tried for war crimes. He died in 1981. The ship belongs to the Swiss-based Allseas group, which is owned by Schelte’s son, Edward Heerema. The company said it does not plan to rename the ship.
The Pieter Schelte, a platform installation, decommissioning and pipe-laying vessel, is 1,565 feet long and has a lift capacity of 48,000 tons. The ship was built in South Korea.
*This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years. *All created and supported by internet wizz, Nick Gill.
