Nico Rost

Ron Kroon : Nico Rost (1966)

Nicolaas Rost (born June 21, 1896 in Groningen , † February 1, 1967 in Amsterdam ) was a Dutch writer , journalist and anti-fascist . His novel Goethe in Dachau was also known in Germany. As a lover of German literature and Germany, Nico Rost was an important propagandist of the reconciliation between the Netherlands and Germany.

Youth and years in Germany

After a school education at the Praedinius Gymnasium in Groningen, the young Nico Rost escaped from his parents' house to become a writer. His first work was poorly received and Rost was only able to live on his books after his military service. Between 1923 and 1933 he lived in Berlin, where he worked as a translator and correspondent for De Telegraaf and the weekly De Groene Amsterdammer . Rost published in German in the monthly booklet Der Cross-Section (1923–1933).

Rost also visited Moscow and Prague during these years . Rost wrote literary reviews for the weekly literary newspaper Groot Nederland (Dutch "Great Netherlands"). He translated works by Alfred Döblin , Lion Feuchtwanger , Ernst Toller , Joseph Roth , Gottfried Benn and Anna Seghers and made the works of these writers known in the Netherlands. Rost became a member of the KPD . Shortly after the seizure of power by Hitler rust was in February 1933 in the Oranienburg concentration camp instructed north of Berlin.

When he was released three weeks later, Rost reported on his experiences in his book Brief uit een concentratiekamp (German report from a concentration camp ) and looked for an apartment in Brussels . In that year he also wrote his Open letter to Gottfried Benn (German: "Open letter to Gottfried Benn", in: Groot Nederland , 1933). From Brussels he went to Spain, where he sided with the government in the Spanish Civil War and fought against Franco . After Franco's victory, he returned to Brussels.

Nico Rost in World War II

In July 1941, in Brussels, Nico Rost married Edith Blumberg, a Jew. He was active in the resistance , although his actions were mostly of a literary nature. He translated the works of RC Bakhuizen van den Brink and Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft under the pseudonym Abel Eppens . Under the name N. de Praetere he published poems by the German philosopher and physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg . This literary resistance was very important in his eyes, because for Nico Rost the pen was more powerful than the sword. The German authorities did not like the disregard of their censorship; they had Rost locked up for it.

Nico Rost was arrested and first brought to Scheveningen . He was later deported to the Herzogenbusch concentration camp and finally to the Dachau concentration camp . Rost had an abscess on his leg and was treated in the sick bay of the Dachau concentration camp . Here he also met Emil Alphons Rheinhardt and Heinrich Eduard Miesen , whom he mentions several times in his Goethe diary in Dachau . He came to read and mainly read German classics like Goethe. Rust was by American soldiers on April 29, 1945 freed .

Nico Rost after his liberation from Dachau

"The old earth is still standing and the sky is still arching over me". These words of Goethe confirmed Rost's conviction that imprisonment and National Socialism were temporary problems. He wrote about this idea in his Goethe diary in Dachau , published in 1946 . For him, the continuity of German culture was more important than the Nazi episode. He denied feelings of hatred against Germany and instead pointed to the greatness of German literature. The book sold well and was translated into German and Czech. The German edition was published under the title Goethe in Dachau. Literature and Reality in 1948 in the SBZ published by Volk und Welt. Anna Seghers wrote the preface for it.

After his liberation, Rost and his wife settled in Brussels . He lived among writers again and was friends with Louis Paul Boon and Herman Teirlinck .

In the first post-war years, Nico Rost found a friendly and interested audience in both German states. Although he was successful in the Federal Republic of Germany, he was mainly celebrated as a communist in the GDR . He was also welcome in Hungary and Czechoslovakia . The government in East Berlin made an offer to Nico Rost: He was supposed to manage and live the literary archive of the GDR in Wiepersdorf Castle , the residence of Achim and Bettina von Arnim . During these years, Rost was working on a biography of Otto Grotewohl . After a few discussions together, the two of them fell apart because the artist Rost was too confused for the bureaucrats. Later there was a break between the new German state, which was increasingly on its own course, and Nico Rost.

Nico Rost was removed from the Dutch Communist Party (CPN), which was led by Stalinist Paul de Groot , because he was not sympathetic to the authoritarian party leader. When this became known in East Berlin , rust was expelled. Back in the Netherlands, he became active in an insignificant small party called the “Socialist Workers Partij” (German: “Socialist Workers' Party”).

In the mid-1950s, Rost was still for some time full of hope that a successful socialist experiment could take place in Poland under Władysław Gomułka . Since he was persona non grata in the east of Germany , he was particularly welcomed again in the Federal Republic.

His book De vrienden van mijn vader (German The Friends of My Father , 1955) contains a very sensitive portrait of the Jews who lived in Groningen's Jewish quarter around the Folkingestraat. The book is a monument to these almost without exception murdered people and describes their everyday life, their poverty, piety and the sense of study and teaching. In the post-war years, the committed anti-fascist Rost also campaigned for the Roma and Sinti to be recognized as war victims.

As a freelance writer , Nico Rost wrote numerous humorous or informative articles in brochures, club newspapers and for tourist offices and also received commissions for speeches and lectures.

Nico Rost was a member of both the Dutch and the International Dachau Committee and, together with others, took the initiative to turn the Dachau concentration camp into a memorial . After 1955, Nico Rost published very little.

Honors

• In 1958 he was awarded the Marianne Philips Prize, which was endowed with five hundred guilders, for his literary work.
• The "Culture Prize of the Province of Groningen" (1966) was no longer able to receive Rost, which had not been showered with literary prizes during his life.
• The fact that a tree was planted in his honor in Israel in June 1966 can also be seen as a recognition of his life and work.

The literary estate

Books

• "Het troostelooze". With a voorrede van Ellen Forest (Baarn: Hollandia-Drukkerij, 1918).
• “Great poets van den laatsten tijd” (1921).
• “Art en cultuur in Sovjet Rusland” (Amsterdam: Querido, 1924).
• "Het nieuwe tooneel in het nieuwe Rusland" (Arnhem: Van Loghum Slaterus, 1927)
• “Levens reports” (The Hague: De Baanbreker-Servire, 1931) .Een serie biographical schetsen
• “Van het Spaanse vrijheidsfront. Een reportage. “With een voorwoord van Louis de Brouckère (Amsterdam: Pegasus, 1937).
• “Het geval Jef Last . Over fascisme en trotskisme ”(Amsterdam: Pegasus, 1938).
• “Goethe in Dachau. Literatuur en werkelijkheid ”(Amsterdam: LJ Veen's Uitgeversmaatschappij, 1946). Integraal op [1] publiceerd.
• “Nog draaft Beyaard. Een Ardennenboek "(Amsterdam-Antwerp: De Wereldbibiotheek, zj [1954])
• "Reisdagboek uit de Krimpenerwaard" (Rotterdam: Ad. Donker, zj [1954]).
• "De vrienden van mijn vader" (first print: Assen: Van Gorcum, 1956) met enkele tekeningen van het joodse leven in Groningen by Lies Veenhoven.
• “Changing climate in Poland”. A rice report (Assen: Van Gorcum, zj [1957]).
• "Ook dat is Brussel". “Appreciaties en herinneringen” (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1958).
• "Daar gaat een Dominee voorbij". De redactie van deze bundel deed Rost seeds met Ds.JJBuskes. (Amsterdam 1965)
• "Tegenover de others". First bundel verhalen en reportages (The Hague: Kruseman, 1966).
• “Goethe in Dachau. A diary". New edition with an afterword by Wilfried F. Schoeller (Berlin: Volk und Welt, 1999).

In magazines

• various articles in het Duitse culturele maandblad “The Cross Section” (1923–1933).
• “De Trotsky crisis” in the “Haagsch Maandblad”, February 1925.
• “Brief uit een concentratiekamp”, in: “Links Richten. Maandblad van het arbeiders-schrijvers-collectief turn left ”, no. 8, antifascist number, 1 May 1933.
• "Ik was weer in Dachau". Brochure met een inleiding van JJ Buskes (z.pl., Uitgave van het Internationaal Dachau Comité, 1956; "I was back in Dachau". In 1955 he writes of a "system of deliberate forgetting, of ingratitude towards the best of all nations") .)
• "Sprookjes van Grimm" in twee delen samengesteld en vertaald by Nico Rost Uitgeverij Prisma 1956.
• "Do you remember, Mr. Hinkel?" An article in "The way out". Jewish Newspaper for Enlightenment and Defense, January 1964
• “Mijn ontmoetingen met Gottfried Benn” in “De nieuwe stem”, maandblad voor cultuur en politiek, (May 1964), afl. 5
• Various articles in "Buiten de perken", het orgaan van de Socialist Workers Partij.

Under the pseudonym "W. van Elhorst ”appeared from his hand

• "Joseph Roth" an article in "Kroniek van Hedendaagsche Kunst en Kultuur" deel 4 (1939)
• "Kroniek achter prikkeldraad" in "Kroniek van Kunst en Kultuur" number 5 (1940) An article about de naar Zuid-Frankrijk uitgeweken Spaanse kunstenaars.

About Nico Rost:

• Hans Olink: "Nico Rost, de man die van Duitsland hield" (Amsterdam: Nijgh en Van Ditmar, 1997). Biography of Nico Rost
• K. ter Laan: Letterkundig woordenboek voor Noord en Zuid (1941)
• GJ van Bork and PJ Verkruijsse: De Nederlandse en Vlaamse auteurs. (1985)
• From Visser: “Open brief to Nico Rost”, Het Literaire Café. Bunnik Sjaalmanpers Utrecht 1986.
• Jac Wallage: "Een inleiding over Nico Rost" uitgesproken bij de presentatie van de biografische Schets van Nico Rost by Hans Olink op 6 September 1997 in the Openbare Library Groningen. Uitgave van Boekhandel Godert Walter Groningen 1997.
• “Verrek, what was Berlijn bleven?” Nederlandse schrijvers en hun kunstbroeders in Berlijn 1918–1945. August Hans den Boef en Sjoerd Faassen. Schrijversprentenboek, Amsterdam 2002.

Web links

Commons : Nico Rost  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Nico Rost in the catalog of the German National Library
• Exhibition by the University Library in Leiden
• Biography at Exil-Archiv