The names of Nazi collaborators have been published online in the Netherlands for the first time.

The archive, consisting of 32 million pages, includes about 425,000 mostly Dutch people who were investigated for collaboration with German occupiers during the Second World War.

The law restricting public access expired on New Year’s Day and a Dutch project called War in Court digitally released the names.

The decision has drawn fierce criticism from both descendants of the accused as well as families of victims.

Only a fifth of those listed ever appeared before a court, and most cases concerned lesser offences such as being a member of the Nationalist Socialist movement.

But concerns are mounting that the move could reignite old tensions and stigmatise individuals linked to the dark history of Dutch collaboration.