Lou Jansen

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Lou Jansen (1943)

Louis "Lou" Jansen (born March 28, 1900 in Amsterdam ; † October 9, 1943 in Scheveningen ) was a Dutch politician of the Communist Partij van Nederland (CPN) and resistance fighter in World War II . In 1943 he was captured by the German occupiers and executed for his activities in the resistance.

biography

In the years before the start of the Second World War, Jansen was employed as an office clerk and representative at various Amsterdam companies. His political career began quietly at first, the exact date of his joining the CPN is not known, but in 1938 he became a member of the party secretariat. Following the capitulation of the Netherlands and the beginning of the German occupation in May 1940, the hopes initially cherished by their leadership that the CPN would be able to remain legal were quickly dashed. The now banned party then went underground and formed one of the first Dutch resistance organizations . In addition to Jansen, the leadership was taken over by the two politicians Paul de Groot and Jan Dieters . In the early days of the resistance, Jansen was primarily responsible for coordinating underground activities in the Amsterdam area, while Dieters took care of the rest of the country. In this role, Jansen played an important role in planning the Amsterdam February strike of 1941, the first major act of civil disobedience during the occupation in the Netherlands. Jansen adapted existing plans for a general strike to the special circumstances - large-scale German raids against Amsterdam's Jews. Whether he acted on his own initiative or on instructions is controversial.

While the resistance efforts of the CPN were still quite successful in the early years of the occupation, the German SD began to put the organization under increasing pressure in the course of 1943. After the arrest of several important CPN members, Jansen, de Groot and Dieters were forced to hide more or less isolated in the east of the country and leave the leadership of the CPN to others. Nevertheless, Dieters was initially arrested on April 1, and Jansen followed two days later. The two were then interned in the so-called Oranjehotel and heard by the Germans, in which they are said to have distanced themselves from communism under duress , admitted their resistance activities and disclosed the names of other resistance members. On August 24, both of them were sentenced to death , and requests for clemency were rejected by Reich Commissioner Arthur Seyß-Inquart . The judgments were finally carried out by shooting on October 9, 1943 on Waalsdorpervlakte in the coastal town of Scheveningen in southern Holland.

After the end of the war, Jansen was posthumously awarded the Verzetskruis for his services in the resistance. Furthermore, the Lou Jansenplein in his hometown of Amsterdam is named after him.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ger Verrips: Dwars, Duivels en Dromend, de Geschiedenis van de CPN 1938–1991 . 1st edition. Balans, Amsterdam 1995, ISBN 978-90-5018-251-5 , pp. 113 .
  2. ↑ Het proces tegen Jansen en Dieters. In: dewereldvangajus.nl. March 16, 2014, accessed January 14, 2020 (Dutch).
personal data
SURNAME Jansen, Lou
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jansen, Louis (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch politician and resistance fighter (CPN)
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 1943
Place of death Scheveningen