Gerrit Bolkestein

Gerrit Bolkestein

Gerrit Bolkestein (born October 9, 1871 in Amsterdam , † September 8, 1956 in The Hague ) was a Dutch politician of the Vrijzinnig-Democratische Bond (VDB) .

Life and activity

Bolkestein was a teacher and school inspector before serving as the Dutch Minister for Education, Arts and Sciences from 1939 to 1945 . In this position he was a member of the Dutch government-in-exile in London from 1940 to 1945 , which was formed after the German occupation of the Netherlands in the spring of 1940.

After his escape to Great Britain, Bolkestein was classified as an important target by the National Socialist police forces : In the spring of 1940 the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin placed him on the special wanted list GB , a directory of people who would be killed in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht Special SS commandos following the occupation troops were to be identified and arrested with special priority.

A radio address given by Bolkestein on March 28, 1944 on the Dutch broadcaster BBC Radio Oranje , in which he encouraged the Dutch population to collect notes, letters, diaries, etc. about their experiences of suffering during the occupation and to hand them over to the government after the war , had an influence on the design of Anne Frank's diary published in 1947 : The girl took Bolkestein's (whose name she writes in her diary “Bolkesteyn”) announcement as an opportunity to use her notes from the years 1942 to 1944 as a personal diary were intended for personal use only, to subsequently rework their structure, stylization, etc. in a way that would make them suitable for reading by third parties and put their notes in the following five months, between the radio address of March 28, 1944 and theirs Arrest and deportation, according to the change From now on, the intended purpose is also based on this new model.

Bolkestein was buried in the Zorgvlied cemetery.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} G. (Gerrit) Bolkestein
2. ^ Hitler's Black Book .