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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — It ought to be a proud milestone in the Dutch seafaring heritage — the construction of a new ship its owner claims will be the world’s largest. But there’s one problem: its name.

Edwin Heerema, founder of the company commissioning the $1.7 billion vessel, wants to name it the Pieter Schelte, after his late father, Pieter Schelte Heerema, who was renowned as a maritime engineer but condemned for his service in the murderous Nazi Waffen SS.

The choice of name has provoked outcry and has revived painful questions about Dutch collaboration with the country’s World War II occupiers.

“For people who know his pitch-black history, this ship should not be named for him. Not now, not ever,” said Ronny Naftaniel, director of CIDI, which monitors anti-Semitism in the Netherlands.

He said Edwin Heerema’s desire to honor his father was understandable up to a point, but the choice of name was “tasteless and unethical.”

Edwin Heerema’s company, Swiss-based Allseas Group SA, rejected criticism. “Pieter Schelte Heerema was widely appreciated in the industry during his life, and the companies that came from his heritage have an excellent name in the offshore industry,” spokesman Jeroen Hagelstein said in an e-mail.

Hagelstein said Heerema joined the Nazis out of opposition to communism rather than enthusiasm for national socialism. He said he then switched sides and joined the resistance in 1943 “as he could no longer associate himself with the ideas of the Nazis.”