Royal Dutch Shell\u2019s decision to plough ahead with plans to host a ship named after a Nazi in UK waters has provoked outrage among Jewish communities and Holocaust memorial groups.<\/p>\n
The vessel is named after Pieter Schelte Heerema, a Nazi who was a member of the Waffen-SS during WWII. <\/p>\n
Having failed in its efforts to get the vessel\u2019s owner to change the name of the ship, Shell is set to launch the boat in UK waters in coming weeks.<\/p>\n
The move forms part of the energy giant\u2019s broader agenda of decommissioning an oilfield off the coast of Scotland. <\/p>\n
As part of this process, Shell has tendered plans to the British government to use the \u201cPeter Schelte\u201d vessel to remove the Brent Delta oil platform from the East Shetland basin.<\/p>\n
The oil rig, which consists of a 23,500 ton steel framework, will then be dispatched for scrapping.<\/p>\n
The \u201cPeter Schelte\u201d ship is currently docked in Rotterdam, where its construction is almost complete. Edward Heerema, the son of Pieter Schelte Heerema, named it in memory of his father.<\/p>\n
The vessel\u2019s planned presence in British waters has sparked anger among Jewish groups throughout Europe.<\/p>\n
Vivian Wineman, chief of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said he will challenge Shell\u2019s plan to introduce the ship to North Sea waters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call on Shell and the government to insist the ship is renamed,\u201d he told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ship-owner should be sensitive to the citizens of Britain and the Netherlands, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who will be deeply hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is never a good time to name a ship after a dead Nazi, but coming just as we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and considering the majority of Dutch Jews were killed in the Holocaust, this is very unfortunate timing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shell said it had backed a campaign, spearheaded by the Dutch, to have the name of the ship altered. Its owner, the chief of Swiss-based energy firm Allseas, however, refused the demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cShell believes that the name of the vessel is inappropriate. We have raised our concerns with Allseas and asked them to consider changing the name,\u201d the firm told the FT.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the name of the vessel is a matter for Allseas alone, and one for Allseas to justify,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
The issue has reportedly been considered by Shell\u2019s top management. But the crane ship is the only one in the world capable of lifting the energy firm\u2019s mammoth Brent oil platform.<\/p>\n
The Brent oil field, at the center of the controversy, has yielded 2 billion barrels of oil and almost 6 trillion cubic feet of gas since production began in 1976.<\/p>\n
Esther Voet, chief of the Dutch Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (Cidi), which fronted the ship\u2019s renaming campaign, denounced Shell for deciding to use the vessel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a bloodstain on the name of Royal Dutch Shell,\u201d she told the FT.<\/p>\n
The British government told the newspaper the issue of the ship\u2019s name was \u201ca matter for Allseas and Shell to resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pieter Schelte Heerema lived in Venezuela prior to the war, and made his way back join the Nazis after Germany invaded the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
After his conviction, a judge found that he had severed ties with the Nazis and worked for the Resistance. Although Heerema\u2019s testimony has been discredited by some, the judge believed his testimony and halved his sentence.<\/p>\n
The former Nazi soldier later founded a successful oil services firm in the Netherlands called Heerema.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Royal Dutch Shell\u2019s decision to plough ahead with plans to host a ship named after a Nazi in UK waters has provoked outrage among Jewish communities and Holocaust memorial groups. The vessel is named after Pieter Schelte Heerema, a Nazi who was a member of the Waffen-SS during WWII. Having failed in its efforts to … Continue reading “Shell sails off with vessel named after Nazi”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[165,295,10962,5956,1567],"class_list":["post-17671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-holocaust","tag-jews","tag-oil-rig","tag-shell","tag-the-netherlands"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17671"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17674,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17671\/revisions\/17674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}