Сибрен Эрик Хазельхофф Роелфзема: Писатель, Летчик и Герой Сопротивления

Dutch American wartime pilot, spy and writer

Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema (3 April 1917 – 26 September 2007) was a Dutch writer who became a resistance fighter and RAF pilot during the Second World War. Near the end of the war he was adjudant (assistant) to Queen Wilhelmina. He was made Knight 4th class of the Military William Order. He is perhaps best known for his book Soldaat van Oranje (Soldier of Orange) which described his experiences in the war. His book was later made into a film. The book and the film about it eventually were made into the most successful Dutch musical ever, premiering 30 October 2010.

Roelfzema was born in the former Dutch East Indies in Surabaya, on Java, when it was under colonial rule. He was from a patrician family, which is listed in the Nederland's Patriciaat. He was the second child of Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema and his wife Cornelia Vreede. His older sister, Ellen, had been born two years before. His father managed rubber and coffee plantations. In the 1930s the family returned to the Netherlands so the children could be provided with a good education. From 16 years of age onward he was committed to becoming a writer. He attended Leiden University and was a member of the Leidsch Student Corps Minerva society while living at Rapenburg 56 across the canal from the Academiegebouw. De Jonge had been an Olympic rower at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, and was very popular among the students. His accidental wounding of Roelfzema was the basis for their forming a friendship. In 1939, he wrote a book of this experience, titled Rendezvous in San Francisco, which became a bestseller in the Netherlands.

Following his trip abroad Roelfzema returned to Leiden University to continue his studies. When war broke out in Europe in September, 1939, Roelfzema and his fellow students supposed Holland would remain neutral as it had during the First World War. When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in November he traveled there to cover the conflict, working as a war correspondent for the Rotterdams Nieuwsblad, the Dordrechtsch Nieuwsblad and the Haagsche Courant. Afterwards he wrote a book about it, titled Het Smeulende Vuur (The Smoldering Fire). This instigated a 48 hour strike by the students. In response the Germans closed the university. In February 1941, Roelfzema wrote his 'Leids manifesto', which criticized German demands of excluding the Jewish students from the student societies. It called upon the students of Leiden to resist the policies of the German occupiers. He printed it at his own expense, and, during the night of 14/15 February, Roelfzema and eleven of his compatriots posted it all over Leiden. Ten days later, the board of the university made a request of the students that they resist the German occupiers no further. Roelfzema wrote a reply on 6 March, pledging in principle to commit no more opposition at the university.

Once in London, Roelfzema became involved in a secret service group of escaped young Dutchmen called the Mews, after Chester Square Mews, the neighborhood in London where they lived. In the pre dawn hours of 23 November 1941, Tazelaar, Roelfzema, Krediet and Lieutenant Francis 'Bob' Goodfellow rowed in on a small dinghy. When they neared the surf, Roelfzema and Tazelaar slipped off the boat and waded onto the beach. Tazelaar was then helped out of his wetsuit to reveal the black tuxedo he was wearing beneath it. Roelfzema then poured a generous amount of brandy over Tazelaar and left him, returning to the dinghy. Reeking of brandy, Tazelaar managed to pass himself off as a drunken party goer and staggered past the sentries stationed around the hotel. He flew the Queen home on the liberation of the Netherlands in May of that year. Shortly afterwards Roelfzema attended the two future Dutch monarchs, Princess Juliana and her daughter Princess Beatrix, on the aeroplane which brought them back to the Netherlands on the Gilze en Rijen flight of 2 May 1945. He helped Beatrix take her first few steps on liberated Dutch soil. At the Queen's inauguration in The Hague on 6 July 1945, Roelfzema was in attendance at the Queen's request. He was also on hand when the princesses returned at Teuge Airport 2 August 1945.

After the Second World War, Queen Wilhelmina offered him a permanent appointment as her adjudant but he declined this position. He also wrote for a number of Dutch newspapers. In 1950 he was approached by Dutch admiral Conrad Helfrich, who asked him to help support the Moluccans. The Moluccas are a group of islands north and west of New Guinea. The islanders are predominantly Christian. Following the withdrawal of the Dutch from the Dutch East Indies, the Molluccans declined to be a part of the newly formed Republic of Indonesia, which was Muslim dominated and under the rule of Sukarno, who had become increasingly authoritarian. They declared their independence as the Republic of South Maluku. Sukarno was in the process of forcibly taking control of the islands. Roelfzema was approached to contact the resistance on the Moluccas and document that Sukarno was using military force against them. This evidence was to be presented to the United Nations, where the case of the Molaccan people could be heard. In November 1968 he married for the second time, to Karin Steensma, an interior decorator. At this time he was contacted by a Dutch publishing company whose primary holding was a Dutch newspaper. They asked if he would convey his war experiences for a series of articles to run in their paper and they proposed to send a ghost writer to take down narration and compose the pieces. After twenty years in the business world, he longed to return to his first calling of writing. He wanted to write about what had happened to him and his friends during the war. As a writer, he had the ability to express himself about what they had gone through, where he knew the others could not. He felt he was coming home, purchased land there and after introducing his wife Karin to the island, the couple moved there together. They lived on Maui for a number of years before moving to a more remote location on the big island of Hawaii. Prominent Dutch film maker Paul Verhoeven took an interest in Roelfzema's Soldaat Van Oranje and brought it to the screen. He cast Rutger Hauer in the part of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema. Roelfzema was on the set as a consultant and the two became lifelong friends. One year later, in 1980, it received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2010 the story was brought to the stage as a musical. The musical version of Soldier of Orange was presented in a unique rotating theater, which was special built in an old hangar at the former military airport at Valkenburg, which is located between Wassenaar and Katwijk near Leiden. The musical was very well received. Roelfzema joined Barnwell Industries as a director in 1977.

In 2009 a foundation was established in memorial to promote writing and the ideals of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema. The foundation offers a bi yearly literary prize in two categories: the Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema Young Talent Prize, awarded to the best master's thesis written in Dutch or English at a Dutch or Flemish university, and the Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema Biography Prize awarded to the best Dutch language Biography. The Young Talent Prize aims to encourage young academic writers. The Biography Prize aims to promote interest in and the reading of biographical works among the Dutch. The thinking of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema and the standards and values that characterized his life are used as a guide in evaluating submissions. Princess Irene accepted the position of guardian of the "Erik Hasselhoff Roelfzema Foundation Prize".