Loe de Jong

Who was Loe de Jong?

Louis de Jong was a Dutch journalist and historian specialising in the history of the Netherlands in World War II and the Dutch resistance.

The magnum opus of Loe de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, in fourteen volumes and 18,000 pages, is the standard reference on the history of the Netherlands during World War II. The Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie recently made an electronic edition of the entire work available for downloading from 11 December 2011, licensed under creative commons CC BY 3.0.

He has also contributed to many other histories on the Netherlands and was a speaker at symposia on the European resistance. In 1988 De Jong was awarded the Gouden Ganzenveer for his contributions to Dutch written and printed culture.

Loe de Jong was Jewish by birth. He lost the greater part of his family, including his parents and his twin brother during the Second World War.

He managed to escape the Holocaust by fleeing to England together with his wife when the Germans invaded the Netherlands. During this time he worked for Radio Oranje broadcasting out of London to the occupied Netherlands.