Henri Polak

A biography of a Dutch Jew (1869-1943) who became a prominent leader of workers, whom he united in trade unions (e.g. the ANDB for Diamond workers founded in 1984 and the NVV, the Federation of Trade Unions, over which he presided between 1905-09). For more than 25 years, from 1913 onwards, he was a member of the Dutch Senate. Pp. 455-459, 612-622, 628-631 describe his fierce protests at first against the pogroms in Poland in 1919 and later against the rise of antisemitism in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1930s. He fought against Nazism and antisemitism in public speeches, articles in journals, and in a special pamphlet. He pleaded to dissolve the Dutch Nazi Party (the NSB) and its semi-military branch (the WA), and protested against Dutch participation in the Olympic games in 1936. Ch. 11 (pp. 632-643), "De laatste jaren", describe his internment from July 1940 till July 1942 on the accusation of anti-German propaganda. He died in February 1943; in May 1943 his wife died in Westerbork. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)