Dutch Recall Racist Number Plates

Over 100 car owners received licence plates with the letters “NSB” on them, a Dutch equivalent of the word Nazi.

NSB is the notorious abbreviation for the Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging, the Dutch fascist party which collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War. Number plates displaying the offending letters were recalled by the Dutch Vehicle Authority on Monday after the first angry complaints by drivers.

“It was caused by a computer programming error,” explained an official. “Being reminded of the NSB leaves most Dutch people uneasy. New plates have been issued to all affected cars.”

NSB is one of several letter combinations, also including KKK, for the Ku Klux Klan and PKK for the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, that have been programmed not to come up when new plate numbers are automatically generated.