Laura Carola Mazirel

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Laura (Lau) Carola Mazirel (born November 29, 1907 in Utrecht , † November 20, 1974 in Saint-Martin-de-la-Mer , Département Côte-d'Or ( France )) was a Dutch lawyer , author, and anti-authoritarian socialist and resistance fighter against National Socialism . She also actively campaigned for homosexual and women's rights .

Life

Mazirel grew up in a pacifist home and lived until she was ten in the Dutch border town of Gennep in the province of North Limburg , then in Utrecht, where she attended grammar school and later studied law and psychology. In addition to her studies, she worked as a teacher and tour guide. In Amsterdam she lived for a time in the socialist commune Roode Kloster von Irene Vorrink around 1930 , and she was also active in the Sociaal Demokratie Studentenclub (Social Democratic Student Club; SDSC). She worked as a legal advisor at the Medisch Opvoedkundig Bureau (Medical Pedagogical Office) and opened her own law firm in 1937. With her legal knowledge, she helped refugees in particular, and she also took up family matters and problem cases with the immigration authorities . She stood up for people who were being prosecuted on the basis of Section 248 of the Dutch Penal Code, which at the time prohibited intimate contact between people of the same sex if one was an adult and the other was a minor. A remarkable effort in the 1930s. She also actively advocated the Dutch government and Jewish church institutions that information about religious belief and other personal interests should not be registered with the state authorities. Your commitment was unsuccessful.

Act

Mazirel knew how to help refugees in the Netherlands during the occupation by the National Socialists in a legal and, in the 1940s, illegal way . Her legal office served in part as a cover for resistance activities; passing on information, contacting them and organizing accommodation for persecuted people. Since she was consistently against the use of weapons, she limited her activities to non-violent resistance. She belonged to the resistance group Vrije Groepen Amsterdam . She operated underground under the code name Noortje Wijnands and the job description “infant sister”. As a resistance fighter, she had endured psychological abuse several times, which affected her health for the rest of her life. In 1943 Mazirel was one of the organizers of the attack on the Amsterdam Residents' Registration Office ( Population Register ) in the Apollobuurt district in order to destroy personal information from politically persecuted people. She was arrested towards the end of 1944, but was released a short time later because her personal file could not be found.

After 1945, she continued her work as a lawyer on the issue of naturalization and issues relating to name changes. As a lawyer she advised the socialist magazine De Vlam and in 1946 the still existing organization Nederlandse Vereniging voor Integratie van Homoseksualiteit (formerly: Cultuur en Ontspanningscentrum ) COC , which campaigns for the rights of homosexuals. At the international gay congress in 1957 in Frankfurt / M., Organized by the COC, she gave lectures. Mazirel was a member of the Commissie Abortusvraagstuk, founded in 1952 (about: Commission for Abortion Issues). As a member of the Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA), she was a congresswoman. Outraged by the Socialist Party's political line in Indonesian affairs, she left the party and became a member of the Pacifist Socialist Party . In 1955, because of her health, she was forced to give up her legal practice and move to the countryside with her husband and son in France.

In 1981, Jan Rogier established the Lau Mazirel Stichting with the task of advocating for the rights and interests of minorities, in the spirit of Laura Mazirel. For the tenth anniversary of the organization COC, she was made an honorary member.

See also

Anarchism in the Netherlands

Publications (selection)

In newspapers and magazines

  • Wet en Huwelijk and het nieuwe Kinderrecht , in: "De groene Amsterdamer" (1948)
  • Woonwagenvraagstuk , in: "Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant" (1965)
  • Gettos in Nederland , in: "De nieuwe Linie" (1966)
  • De Wet. Nieuwe regulen ter bevordering van het maatschappelijk welzijn van de woonwagenbevolking , in: "Nederlands Juristenblad" (1968)
  • Bezwaren tegen de komende volkstelling , in: "Wetenschap en Samenleving" (1971)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Author: Leonie de Goei, Portret: LC Mazirel . Particulier bezit . First published in BWSA 5, 1992, pp. 189–192. In: Biographical Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbewegung in Nederland. Dutch; Retrieved July 1, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Mazirel, Laura Carola
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mazirel, Lau Carola
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch lawyer, author
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Utrecht
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1974
Place of death Saint Martin de la Mer , Côte-d'Or department ( France )