Jan Postma
Jan Postma (born February 18, 1895 in Scheveningen , † July 23, 1944 in Kamp Vught ) was a Dutch communist . He was one of the leaders of the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) during World War II and a resistance fighter for the Red Chapel .
Life
Postma grew up in a family who moved from Friesland to Amsterdam because of the agricultural crisis of 1880 . The family was originally in the Dutch Reformed Church , but there was an atheistic and social democratic spirit in his family . Postma learned the profession of lithographer . He attended evening school and became active in the union . Initially he sympathized with the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP), but this party's attitude at the outbreak of World War I led him to join the Federation of Social Anarchists . Postma was mainly active in the Social Anarchist Youth Organization (SAJO). In 1922 he married Nel Wessels, who was also active in this movement.
Postma later chaired the anti-Stalinist League of Communist Discussion and Propaganda Clubs , which joined the CPN in 1927. He became a member of the leadership of the CPN, in which he campaigned against an ultra-radical course. In a newly formed party leadership in 1930, Postma was not accepted after he had criticized the party leadership. The global economic crisis and mass unemployment at the beginning of the 1930s ensured that Postma's critical stance was better accepted and that he returned to the party leadership in 1932. He then spent a year in Moscow as a Dutch delegate to the Comintern . When he returned to the Netherlands, he took over the leadership of the Dutch section of the International Red Aid . Among other things, this attempted to organize asylum for German communists who had fled from Hitler.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Postma withdrew from the party leadership of the CPN to work for the underground movement in his profession as a chemigrapher . In this position, he was able to forge personal documents. He also became active again for the Comintern underground apparatus and the Soviet intelligence service. After Anton Winterink's arrest , Postma returned to the leadership of the underground organization of the CPN in October 1942 and replaced its Amsterdam head Jan Janzen after his arrest. Later, after Paul de Groot resigned from this position , Postma took over the presidency of the CPN. He looked for more cooperation with social democratic resistance groups and pleaded for a parliamentary-democratic way to socialism in the Netherlands after the liberation. Postma played a significant role in the Dutch resistance to National Socialism through the formation of the Resistance Council in the Kingdom of the Netherlands .
On November 11, 1943, Postma was arrested by the Security Service (SD) along with other CPN officials . He was held in prison in Amsterdam and in the Herzogenbusch concentration camp , among others . Postma was sentenced to death on April 20, 1944 and shot on July 23 or 31, 1944.
In memory of Postma, the Jan Postmahof was inaugurated with a plaque on February 22, 1975 in Amsterdam .
Web links
- Biography Jan Postma , biography from socialism and the labor movement in Nederland
- National Monument Kamp Vught
- Page 52
Individual evidence
- ↑ The memorial considers the 23rd to be the more likely date of execution
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Postma, Jan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 18, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Scheveningen |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 23, 1944 or July 31, 1944 |
| Place of death | Kamp Vught |