Two men have been arrested on suspicion of having stolen large amounts of historical World War II documents and material from the National Archives, in an operation that may have been going on for some 10 years, according to Berlingske.

“Based on the amount of material, this seems to have been organised theft that has been systematically carried out for several years,” Copenhagen Police Spokesman Tomas Juhl tells Berlingske, adding that the material is “unique and irreplaceable cultural heritage”.

In a search of the two men’s homes yesterday, officers found large amounts of historical material including police reports, court documents, desertion cases and personal effects that had been removed from the archives.

Berlingske says that the material primarily concerns Danish Nazis who fought for Germany in World War II.

“Given the amount of stolen documents, this may have been going on for up to 10 years. This must have been a professional job and the material has been removed from the reading room in small portions over a long period,” says Keeper of Public Records Asbjørn Hellum.

Both men are said to have relations with neo-Nazi groupings in Denmark, with one of the men known by police to have connections to bikers.

If found guilty of stealing items of national heritage, the men can be sentenced to up to six years in prison.

The theft of valuable material from the National Archives is the second major theft from a national repository in Denmark.

In 2003, Christie’s auctioneers in London reported several unusually rare volumes up for auction. The books were identified by Denmark’s Royal National Library and were found to have been some of 3,000 rare volumes that had been stolen from the library between 1960 and 1978.

Although the theft was reported in the 1970s, it was not until 2003 that the case was eventually solved and rare 17th, 18th and 19th century volumes were recovered, mostly in Denmark but also from abroad.

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