Jacques Presser

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Hans Kolfschoten, Louis Paul Boon , Hanny Michaelis & Jacques Presser (1967)

Jacques (Jacob) Presser (born February 24, 1899 in Amsterdam , † April 30, 1970 in Bergen aan Zee ) was a Dutch historian.

Life

After studying history and Dutch , Jacques Presser received his doctorate in 1926 from the University of Amsterdam . He embarked on a career as a teacher and taught history at Vossius Gymnasium in his hometown. One of his students, with whom he remained connected for a lifetime, was Loe de Jong .

After the occupation of the Netherlands by the German Wehrmacht in 1940, he was dismissed from school due to his Jewish religious affiliation. After Presser's wife was deported to the Sobibor concentration camp in 1943 and died there, Presser went into hiding. He hid with friends until the end of the war.

He wrote a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte , which deals extremely critically with the career, personality, political activity and wars of Napoleon; it was published in 1946. Already in the introduction, Presser leaves no doubt that one of the main intentions of his endeavors is to clear away the various glosses and legends surrounding Napoleon. He shows him as an unscrupulous conqueror and as the perfect organizer of the first modern dictatorship, which became the model for all later dictatorships. Presser is critical of the person and ruler Napoleon, with his time, his admirers and enemies - and also with those who contributed to his legend. In 1978, Peter Klassen polemicized against the German edition in a review for the historical magazine with disparities such as “insult” and “tendentious work”: “Broad descriptions of the war misery caused by the“ great human slaughter ”, which lacked overarching goals, replace the deeper ones The obvious parallels to Adolf Hitler displeased the diplomat Klassen, who was employed as Jewish advisor to the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) in Paris during the Third Reich . On the other hand, the review in Die Zeit was positive: “No Napoleon depiction in the last twenty years conveys such important insights ... Presser's spirited, colorful style, which makes extensive use of irony and wit, guarantees a downright lively reading”.

Shortly after the biography was published, Presser was given a teaching position in history at the University of Amsterdam ; In 1948 he became a professor of contemporary history. In 1959 he was appointed professor of modern history .

In 1965 he published his account of the persecution and extermination of the Dutch Jews during the German occupation during the Second World War , his actual main work on which he had worked for 15 years and which was published by the Dutch State Institute for War Documentation.

Jacques Presser died on April 30, 1970 in Bergen aan Zee at the age of 71.

Works (selection)

  • The book “De Tribus Impostoribus” (Of the Three Fraudsters) (PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam). Verlag HJ Paris, Amsterdam 1926; 169 pp.
  • De Tachtigjarige Oorlog (under a pseudonym). Elsevier, Amsterdam 1941. New edition (under own name) 1948; 6th edition 1978; 384 pp.
  • Napoleon: history en legend . Elsevier, Amsterdam 1946; 7th edition 1978; 632 pp.
    • German translation: Napoleon. Life and legend . From the Dutch by Christian Zinsser . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1977; 608 p. New edition: Manesse Verlag, Zurich 1990, 1997; 1024 pp., ISBN 3-7175-8156-2 Also published under the title: Napoleon: the decryption of a legend . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1979.
  • America. Van kolonie tot wereldmacht ("America. From colony to world power". History of the United States). Elsevier, Amsterdam 1949. (4th, revised, edition 1976; 592 pages)
  • The night of the Girondins . From the Dutch by Edith Rost-Blumberg. In: Marga Minco, The bitter herb. A small chronicle / Jacob Presser, Die Nacht der Girondisten . Rowohlt, Hamburg 1959, pp. 75-145.
  • Ondergang. De vervolging en verdelging van het Nederlandse Jodendom 1940–1945 [ downfall. The persecution and extermination of Dutch Jewry 1940–1945 ]. 2 volumes. Staatsdrukkerij / Martinus Nijhoff, Den Haag 1965. (8th edition. 1985; 526 + 564 pages) ( online at Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren ).
    • Abbreviated English translation: Ashes in the wind: The destruction of Dutch Jewry. From the Dutch by Arnold Pomerans. Souvenir, London 1968. New edition 2010; 556 p .; with an afterword by Dr. Dienke Hondius. ISBN 9780285638136 . American first edition: The Destruction of the Dutch Jews. EP Dutton, New York, 1969; 556 pp.
  • 'Poor in the golden age.' In: Acta Comeniana. Revue internationale des études comeniologiques. 2nd year, issue 26, 1970, pp. 179-182.
  • 'The Judenrat in the Netherlands.' In: Rachel Erlich; Max Weinreich et al: Imposed Jewish Governing Bodies under Nazi Rule. YIVO Colloquium, December 2-5, 1967. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York 1972, OCLC 916174016 , pp. 54-70.
  • The night of the Girondins: novella . From the Dutch by Mirjam Pressler . With a foreword by Primo Levi . Frankfurter Verlags-Anstalt, Frankfurt am Main 1991 (new edition 1994); 128 pp.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wim Berkelaar, Jos Palm: "Ik wil wekken en waarschuwen". Gespreken over Nederlandse historici en hun eeuw . Aksant, Amsterdam 2008, ISBN 978-90-5260-208-0 , p. 88.
  2. ↑ Historical magazine. Volume 227 (1978), pp. 185f.
  3. ↑ Napoleon Bonaparte: A myth without example . In: The time . November 18, 1977, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 9, 2017]).
personal data
SURNAME Presser, Jacques
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Presser, Jacob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1970
Place of death Bergen aan Zee