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Jacob Luitjens

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Jacob Luitjens
Born18 April 1919
Buitenzorg, Dutch East Indies
Died14 December 2022(2022-12-14) (aged 103)
Lemmer, Netherlands
NationalityDutch
Other namesGerhard Harder
Known forNazi collaborator

Jacob Luitjens (18 April 1919 – 14 December 2022) was a Dutch collaborator during World War II. He was nicknamed the terror of Roden, as he was active in and around Roden in the Drenthe Province. He was born in Buitenzorg, Dutch East Indies.

After the war, on 10 September 1948, Luitjens was convicted and sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment. He evaded this punishment by fleeing to Paraguay, aided by Mennonites,[1] using the name "Gerhard Harder". He immigrated to Canada in 1961, where he became an instructor in the Department of Botany at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Students in the department knew him as an almost completely silent "ghost-like" man.

The Frisian Jack Kooistra, also known as 'the Frisian Simon Wiesenthal', managed to track down Luitjens in 1992. Luitjens was stripped of his Canadian citizenship and was deported to the Netherlands, where he was imprisoned. He resumed his life sentence at a prison in Groningen until March 1995. Afterwards, the Canadian government forbade his return to Canada. Luitjens was without a nationality thereafter. Ian Kagedan of B'nai Brith Canada characterized the deportation as part of an ongoing "quest" to bring Nazi war criminals to justice.[2]

Luitjens granted an interview in January 2022, at the age of 102.[3] He died on 14 December 2022, at the age of 103.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Scholars uncover hidden stories of the Holocaust – Mennonite Brethren Herald". 6 April 2018.
  2. ^ Dutch Nazi deported from Canada for lying about wartime Past, The Jewish Post and News, 2 December 1992
  3. ^ Hulzebos, Bram (9 January 2022). "Dit gebeurde er toen podcastmaker Maarten van Gestel aanbelde bij oud-NSB'er Jacob Luitjens (102), de 'schrik van Roden'". DVHN. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  4. ^ "Oud-NSB'er Jacob Luitjens, de Schrik van Roden, overleden". Nos. 16 December 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
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