Date of birth:

January 6th, 1880 (Steenwijk, the Netherlands)

Date of death:

December 9th, 1941 (Sachsenhausen (Dsl.))

Nationality:

Dutch

Leo Polak was a Dutch philosopher, jurist and well-known freethinker. Born in Steenwijk, he married Henriette Antoinette Schwarz (1893-1974), one of the heirs of the Polak & Schwarz essence factory, in 1917.

He graduated cum-laude in law in 1903 and also graduated cum-laude in 1921 for the dissertation ‘De zin der vergelding, Een strafrechts-filosofisch onderzoek’ (The sense of retribution, A criminal law philosophical investigation).

In 1925, Leo Polak became extraordinary professor at Leiden University in the philosophy of law, and already an honorary doctorate in 1921 followed an appointment as ordinary professor at the University of Groningen. He was also active in the Freethinker Association ‘De Dageraad’ and the Dutch Atheist Union.

In November 1940, he was suspended by the University of Groningen because of his Jewish origin, against which he protested strongly. The letter in which he strongly objected to this suspension and called the German occupier ‘the enemy’ ended up with the SD through the actions of the university's pro-Nazi rector-magnificus Kapteyn. On this, he was arrested on 15-2-1941.

Via various prisons, he ended up in the Sachenhausen concentration camp, where he died on 9-12-1941.

His wife Henriette and two of their three daughters survived the war. The second daughter Henriette jr. was active in the resistance and, after being arrested in 1941, was deported to Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, where she was killed on 11-12-1942.

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• Photo: Leonard Polak
  
• Archief Jack Kooistra. Joods Monument. Oorlogsgravenstichting. Artikel van Frank von Hebel in het Dagblad van het Noorden van dinsdag 3 mei 2022.

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