Arthur Egon Antonius Jacobus Graaff
| Arthur Egon Antonius Jacobus Graaff | |
|---|---|
 Arthur-graaff-1359825053.jpg Graaff in 2012 | |
| Born | 12 August 1948 Hilversum, the Netherlands |
| 🏫 Education | Institute for Social Sciences, The Hague, BA Economics, 1971 |
| 💼 Occupation | Dutch correspondent, Managing Editor, Media Plaza (2003), Managing Editor, Phaxx magazine, (2004-5), Editor-in-Chief, Nieuws-WO2.tk (2009-2017), Editor-in-Chief, NLnazivrij.tk (2009-13); spokesman, AFVN.nl (2014-2022); coordinator 'Do Not Remember Nazi's' (2020-current) |
| Notable credit(s) | Award-winning campaigner, author of six books, international media attention |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | K.A. Kazimeirska (1992-2013); Ewa Romer (1982), Rosalie Fluitsma (1968-1971) |
| 👶 Children | two sons by K.A. Kazimierska |
| Twitter= | |
Arthur Graaff (born in Hilversum in 1948) is a Dutch journalist, author, whistleblower, educator, publicist and anti-fascist. He successfully campaigned to organize funding for the beleaguered Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje in 1993, and to cease the commemoration of Nazis in the Ysselsteyn German war cemetery. Graaff also called to end the exhibition "Design of the Third Reich" in 2018, and campaigned for the extradition to the Netherlands of Klaas Carel Faber.
Early years[edit]
Graaff grew up as the son of a decorated Dutch anti-Nazi resistance fighter, Bart Graaff[1], who spent three years in Nazi captivity. In 1956 the family fled to the US because of the Soviet invasion of Hungary. The father worked for the then Lockheed Aircraft Corporation for three years, the family living in Mountain View, California. There Graaff was received by Nobel-prize winner and transistor-inventor William Shockley.[2]
Career[edit]
Wanting to start in journalism, he applied as a copy boy at the national daily De Volkskrant (1967-1971) and progressed from there. He signed on as laundry boy on the passenger liner SS Rotterdam for the summer holiday of 1967 to visit New York. Later he also worked for the national tv news NOS-Journaal[citation needed], became managing editor of three Dutch regional weeklies for publisher Weekmedia[citation needed], wrote for the Amsterdam daily Het Parool,[3][better source needed] campaigning against big pharma[4][5], also in the Dutch apothecaries official journal ('Pharmaceutisch Weekblad' [6]). He wrote for the national dailies Trouw and the NRC[7]) for the Financial Times[8] and became the Dutch correspondent for two Polish weeklies The Warsaw Voice and Nowa Europa[citation needed] as well as writing for the British Content-wire.com.[9] In 1984 he took a job as Dutch copy editor for the official journal of the European Union in Luxembourg. He traveled to a.o. the US, Japan and Uganda for his work and met a.o. web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and Polish prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki.[citation needed]
In 1983, he started a publishing company Food Publications Media VOF in Amsterdam with two other Dutchmen, and co-wrote and published 'De 50 beste Indonesische restaurants in Nederland' ('The 50 Best Indonesian Restaurants in the Netherlands').[10]
As a book author, he wrote six books and guides, including 'Encylopedie voor Iedereen' ('Encyclopedia for Everyone', co-author, 12th edition).
As an educator he lectured in communication, writing and PR and history from 1980 through 2015. A.o. he taught for four years at (then) Holland College in Diemen and set up the first ever PR course in Poland in 1991.[citation needed] He was a guest lecturer in communication at the Warsaw University and the Warsaw Business School.[citation needed] He also taught courses on WW-II at the so-called 'people's universities' in Hilversum,[11] Amersfoort,[12][better source needed] and Bussum.
He lived and worked in Warsaw from 1992 to 1996 where he started another publishing company, Trend Inter Media Sp.z.o.o., publishing thematic diaries for Polish high school and university students. There he also published the first eco-diary in cooperation with Greenpeace and started a support campaign for the European association of Judges.[citation needed] In 1998 he started writing on European and web affairs for the Dutch and English editions of the ICT-weekly Computable[13] and reported from Germany, the UK, the US and Japan[14] until 2002.
In 2009 he initiated the news website 'Nieuws-WO2' ('News-WW-II') with the help of fellow journalist and NVJ-board member Tom Posch[15] providing about three news articles on WW-II per working day (until 2017). He also started the website NLnazivrij.tk ('NLnazifree.tk'). He uncovered a.o. that on the basis of Yad Vashem-figures, per capita during WW-II the Dutch had rescued by far the most Jews in all of Nazi-occupied Europe. i.e. on average one person saved on 1,800 Dutch, for which they received about 20% of all Yad-Vashem-recognitions for saving Jews.[16][17] He also covered all court sessions of the Aachen trial against Heinrich Boere, a convicted Dutch SS-murderer who had managed to escape to Germany, where he had lived freely until 2009. Graaff interviewed the judge and prosecutor, and wrote a blog about the trial, called 'Aken Blog'. His father, a former Nazi prisoner, lent him his car, and paid for the travel (4,000 kms) and lodging.[18] The Council of Europe invited him for an educational conference of a week in camp Auschwitz. He also spent a week visiting camp Dachau and later organized an exposition of his photos there.
In 2017 the Dutch tv-channel VPRO included Graaffs campaign against the Ysselsteyn war cemetery in an installment of 'Nicolaas op Oorlogspad'('Nicolaas on the war path').[19] In 2017, national public tv NPO and the Dutch regional channel 'L1' included Graaff's campaign in a documentary about the Ysselsteyn cemetery called 'Het zijn maar Duitsers' ('They're only Germans').[20]. Graaff later criticized the makers for not including any Jewish view on this Nazi cemetery where a.o. the SS-deporter of Anne Frank is buried.
Criticisms and threats[edit]
Graaff has been called a "fanatical and ill-informed anti-fascist" in national daily NRC [21], but the paper published his rejection in full a few days later, exposing Wieringa as too hasty and not being well informed.[22]. He was also called "hysteric", "incorrigible", "insane", a "clown", and a "rogue madman" by a rightist columnist in magazine HP/De Tijd [23]. In a hate campaign lasting since spring 2022, another rightist writer has framed Graaff as a liar and fabulator on TPO.nl[24] that a.o. accused him of grave robbery, for which Graaff was never indicted nor condemned. On other rightist sites Graaff is regularly attacked, such as on rightist scandal site GeenStijl.nl.[25] This attack led to a police investigation. In November 2021 a woman was sentenced to a €300 suspended fine and forced psychiatric treatment for threatening to set his office on fire and kill him.[26] In a local newspaper Graaff was accused of acting like a 'terrorist' in a reader's comment. For that crime he was never indicted nor condemned (accusation by J. Kreunen).[27]
Campaigner[edit]
Graaff initiated and managed some dozen campaigns since 1992.
Master student Sjoerd van Hoenselaar has chosen him as subject of his thesis 'Vrede met de vijand' ('Peace with the enemy', 2022) by , on his campaign to clear Nazi war graves.[28]
In 1992, together with his friend dr Michiel Roscam Abbing (with whom he later wrote 'Rembrandt for Dummies'), he set up a protest website called 'Geen.betuwelijn.nu' ('No Betuweline,now') against the construction of a new railway goods connection between Rotterdam and the German border near Arnhem. However, the line was constructed.
In 1993, he set up a campaign to support Oslobodjenje, then the last daily in Sarajevo, with aid from the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dutch dailies Het Parool, Trouw, de Volkskrant, cartoonist Opland, the Dutch journalists' union NVJ, Reporters Without Borders and others, and collected over €20,000, some bullet proof vests and computers for them.[29] The paper survived.
In 1999, together with ten other well-known Dutch journalists and publicists, he started a whistle-blowing protest against the major Dutch daily publisher, then Perscombinatie, who without agreement or prior consent started exploiting all free-lance material of their contributors under the brand name 'PersDatabank' (later 'FactLane', now integrated in Lexis-Nexis); eventually the court condemned the publisher to pay the free-lancers €2.3 million. From this campaign a new trade union emerged, the Freelancers Associatie[30]).
Graaff joined the AFVN in 2014 - abbreviation of 'Association of Anti-Fascist Former Resistance Fighters in the Netherlands[31], nominally a pro-Putin group, as a spokesperson, closely working together with then president prof dr Kees van der Pijl[32] (Vd Pijl resigned in 2015). After Putin's invasion of the rest of Ukraine, Graaff parted from the AFVN as they supported the invasion, which he didn't.[33] Many of Graaffs AFVN-campaigns were supported by the International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR), of which the AFVN is a member.
Campaigns and remembrances[edit]
- Against the commemoration of ten Nazi soldiers at the general cemetery in Vorden on May 4, in 2012 and 2013, in cooperation with the German VVN-BdA, an initiative of Fed. Joods Nederland.[34]
- 'Not Gauck but Faber' ('Gauck niet, Faber wel') to come to Holland; then German president Joachim Gauck was to give the 'freedom 'lecture' in the town of Breda on the Dutch Liberation Day. As ex-Dutch SS-man, war criminal and murderer, Klaas Carel Faber had escaped from prison in that town in 1952 and had lived freely in Germany ever since, the claim was to return him first, in stead of Gauck. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem supported Graaff's action,[35]) and had named Faber as their number 1 wanted Nazi. All major media published the campaign, and the president's chancellery reacted to it. [36] Text: "Der Fall Faber reicht zurück in das tiefschwarze Loch der deutschen Geschichte mit Hybris, Mord und Krieg. Ich habe großes Verständnis dafür, dass Menschen es als unerträglich empfinden, dass Klaas Carel Faber trotz der schlimmen Verbrechen, wegen derer er in den Niederlanden rechtskräftig verurteilt wurde, sein Leben in Freiheit verbringen konnte. Und ich begrüße es, dass die Vollstreckung der Strafe durch die zuständigen Justizbehörden erneut geprüft wird." ("The Faber case reaches back to the deep black hole of the German history, full of arrogance, murder and war. I have great understanding for the fact that people find it unacceptable that Klaas Carel Faber - regardless of his serious crimes, for which he was legally bindingly condemned - could live his life in freedom. And I welcome it, that that the execution of the punishment will be reviewed again by the competent juridical office.") The German prosecutor decided to start a trial against Faber, but Faber died on 24 May 2012.[37][38][39][40][41][42]
- to promote commemoration of the 3 million Indonesian civilian dead during WWII[43]
- in 2014 he initiated the annual commemoration of the 'February Strike' strike in Hilversum.[44]
- against the free and unmitigated trade in Nazi attributes on Dutch EBay subsidiary Marktplaats and private fairs (partly successful: fairs in Huizen and Duiven closed), in collaboration with the national tv-programme Vara's Kassa! and the CIDI, ongoing. In August 2021 the Dutch minister of justice officially declared: 'Glorifying Nazi ideas through the sale of Nazi objects at trade fairs is undesirable and morally objectionable'.[45]
- against commemorations at the Ysselsteyn German war cemetery (near Venray, Netherlands), where more than 31,000 German and Dutch war dead are buried, to prevent the annual wreath-laying by the German ambassador there. This campaign was successful and received support from the Franco-German Nazi-hunters such as Beate Klarsfeld,[46] two chief rabbis, camp/museum Dachau, the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Graaff also wants to clear all graves on this burial ground, as he stated repeatedly. [20]
- against the exhibition "Design of the Third Reich" in the Design Museum Den Bosch. Graaff demonstrated wearing a Star of David and biblically torn clothes as a sign of sorrow, as the exhibition was only six meters across the street from the monument for the holocaust/shoah dead of Den Bosch[47]. The exhibition attracted more visitors than was expected and was extended by six weeks, but was not exported to Germany as the organizers had planned.[48] This protest received support from, among others, the Ned. Israelite Congregation NIK, the Jewish journalist Hans Knoop, the Dutch writer, artist and Holocaust survivor Chaja Polak, chief rabbi Raphael Evers from Düsseldorf.[49][50]
- in 2018 he organized a photo exhibition of his pictures taken of Dachau concentration camp with the title 'Is het vredig in Dachau?' ('Is it peaceful in Dachau?').[51]
Current[edit]
In March 2020 Graaff was convicted to a fine of €500 (of which €250 on probation) by the police court in Utrecht for local breach of the peace ('lokaalvredebreuk' in Dutch) at the Militaria Fair in Houten, February 16, 2020. Graaff's appeal is still pending.
Continuing a campaign against a Nazi trade fair in Duiven that Graaff and the AFVN had managed to get closed, Graaff was refused entry to its successor in Didam by the mayor and thrown out in Nov. 2021. [52] A crmiminal complaint against the mayor and the organizers is pending.
In 2022, Arthur Graaff campaigned against flowerbeds with carnations for Dutch veterans by sending letters of protest to hundreds of Dutch municipal councils and boards.[53] According to the organizing veterans, the carnations honor Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, who had been a full member of the NSDAP, an SS-member and was caught illegally promoting US aircraft sales for Lockheed.[54]
He continues to run the campaign 'Do not remember Nazis' against the remembrance of Nazi soldiers and criminals and the free and undocumented trade in Nazi paraphernalia. This is supported by a.o. two chief rabbis Binyomin Jacobs and Raphael Evers, several Jewish leaders and communities in Holland, the management of camp-museum Dachau and members of the International Federation of Resistance Fighters.[55]
Also, he writes regular columns for Dutch leftist/socialist blogs Krapuul.nl[56] (since 2014, now some 400 articles) and Konfrontatie.nl[57]
Other[edit]
At age 11 back in Holland, he was recruited as a regular actor for radio plays for the then catholic radio network KRO. For almost a year he appeared on radio weekly in leading roles. As he also liked singing (taking after his mother) and became a boy member of the choir of the basilica of St. John in Laren (NH).
During his early Amsterdam years, he became deeply interested in film, especially French, Swedish and Italian. He tried film acting as an extra in the Dutch film 'Naakt over de schutting' ('Nude over the fence') by director Frans Weisz. As an admirer of French chansons, in 1997 Graaff attended the funeral of French singer Barbara in Paris, and wrote about it for the Dutch weekly HP/deTijd. He considered the event the ending of the 'French era' in Holland.
Bibliography[edit]
- 'Encylopedie voor Iedereen' ('Encyclopedia for Everyone', with Fokke Wierda and Ronald Jonkers), 12th edition, 1974
- 'VARA Gezinsencyclopedia'[58] ('VARA family Encyclopedia', co-author), 1975
- 'Leve het dier!', translation from English, 1976
- 'De macht op het hoofd', translation from English, 1977
- 'De 50 beste Indonesische restaurants in Nederland' ('The 50 Best Indonesian Restaurants in the Netherlands', co-author & publisher), 1983
- 'Dziewcyna Funny Girl' ('Girl Funny Girl', thematic diary for college girls, publisher and co-author), 1994, 1995, 1996
- 'Eco Kalendarz' ('Eco Diary', student's diary, first ever in Poland, in cooperation with Greenpeace, publisher and author), 1996
- 'Het laatste nieuws uit Sarajewo' ('The latest news from Sarajewo'), translation from French, 1993[59]
- 'Rembrandt voor Dummies', co-author dr Michiel Roscam Abbing, 2006, second printing 2017[60]
- 'Nederland in de Tweede Wereldoorlog voor Dummies'[61] ('The Netherlands during WW-II for Dummies'), 2012
- 'FAQ WO2' (FAQ WW-II'), 2013
References[edit]
- ↑ "Hilversumse verzetsman Bart Graaff overleden ('Dutch resistance fighter Bart Graaff dies')". Gooi- en Eembode. 2014-11-27. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
- ↑ "Mtn. ReView Summer 2021". Joomag.
- ↑ "Resultaten | Delpher". www.delpher.nl.
- ↑ Het Parool
- ↑ "Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant | 28 september 1991 | pagina 21". Krantenbank Zeeland.
- ↑ "1994, jaargang 129". calameo.com.
- ↑ Arthur Graaff (1998-11-02). "Intel stapt in Nederlandse Internetdiensten ('Intel gets into Dutch Internet services')". NRC.nl (in Nederlands). Retrieved 2023-01-13.
- ↑ "Full text of "Financial Times , 1998, UK, English"".
- ↑ "Re: FOS Newsletter Excerpts from Peter Suber on 2001-09-14 (American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum)". www.southampton.ac.uk.
- ↑ Graaff, Arthur (1983). De 50 beste Indonesische restaurants in Nederland ('The 50 Best Indonesian Restaurants in the Netherlands'). FP Media VOF. Search this book on
- ↑ Landelijke primeur bij Volksuniversiteit cursus[dead link]
- ↑ "Volksuniversiteit Amersfoort". www.facebook.com.
- ↑ Auteur Arthur Graaff
- ↑ "IPv6 moet Internet-explosie opvangen ('IPv6 must catch Internet-explosion')". www.computable.nl.
- ↑ Dolf Rogmans (1 February 2013). "Tom Posch (1937-2012)". Villamedia.
- ↑ Graff, Arthur (18 January 2012). "Eén op 1.800 Nederlanders redde Joden". de Volkskrant.
- ↑ "Names and Numbers of Righteous Among the Nations - per Country and Ethnic Origin". Yad Vashem. 1 Jan 2022. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
- ↑ Arthur Graaff (23 March 2010). "Aken Blog" (in Nederlands). Nieuws-WO2.tk. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
- ↑ "Nicolaas op oorlogspad - Houdt het dan nooit op? ('Nicolaas on the war path - Will it never end?')". VPRO. 3 May 2018. Retrieved 2023-01-02.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Limburg Doc: Het zijn maar Duitsers". L1.
- ↑ Wieringa, Tommy (2019-04-27), "De SS'ers", NRC (in Nederlands), retrieved 2023-01-11
- ↑ "Arthur Graaff". NRC.
- ↑ van Amerongen, Arthur (2018-05-04), "De lawaaidemo van Antifa is het nieuwe fascisme", HP/De Tijd (in Nederlands), retrieved 2023-01-11
- ↑ "Arthur Graaff: antifascist, fantast en grafschenner". ThePostOnline. 21 April 2020.
- ↑ "GeenStijl: Ayatholla_Buttbanger SPREEKT (Áyatholla Buttbanger SPEAKS')". www.geenstijl.nl.
- ↑ "'Threatener of anti-fascist Graaff convicted'" (in Nederlands). 2021-12-16. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
- ↑ "DPG Media Privacy Gate". myprivacy.dpgmedia.nl.
- ↑ "Masterscriptie Sjoerd van Hoenselaar definitieve versie hq.pdf". Google Docs.
- ↑ Graaff, Arthur (3 April 1993). "Pers gastvrij voor Oslobodenje ('Press hospitable for Oslobodenje')". Het Parool.
- ↑ "Freelancers Associatie". Wikisage.org. 30 Dec 2013.
- ↑ https://www.afvn.nl ]language=nl
- ↑ GRAAFF, KEES VAN DER PIJL EN ARTHUR (9 January 2014). "Ruim de laatste resten van het Hitler- fascisme op". de Volkskrant.
- ↑ "Poetins vergeten reisgids – Krapuul".
- ↑ "Vorden schrapt herdenking Duitsers ('Vorden stops remebrance of Germans')". NOS Journaal. 2013-05-02. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
- ↑ "Operation: Last Chance.GERMANY.OLC Activities.News-German". swcjerusalem.org.
- ↑ "Interview mit der niederländischen Tageszeitung „Volkskrant" anlässlich des offiziellen Besuchs in den Niederlanden ('Interview with the Dutch daily 'Volkskrant' regarding the official visit to the Netherlands'". Bundespraesidentsamt. 5 May 2012. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
- ↑ "Holländer fuehlen sich von Gauck-Besuch beleidigt ('The Dutch feel insulted by Gauck's visit')". Die Welt. 5 July 2010. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
- ↑ "Sehr gut dass der Bundespräsident nach Holland kommt ('Very good that the German president is coming to Holland')". Deutsche Welle. 5 May 2012. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
- ↑ "Ein Test für das deutsch-niederländische Verhältnis ('A test for the German-Dutch relations')". Zeit Online. 5 May 2012. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
- ↑ "NiederlandeNet – Nachrichten Mai 2012 - Gedenken: Niederlande zwei Minuten still". www.uni-muenster.de.
- ↑ "Zes vragen over zaak-Faber en komst Gauck". Duitsland Instituut.
- ↑ "Normalizing German-Dutch relations – DW – 05/05/2012". dw.com.
- ↑ Arthur Graaff (2010-08-27). "Why are we ignoring the Indian holocaust of 1943-'44?". HP/De Tijd (in Nederlands). Retrieved 2020-08-13.
- ↑ "Herdenken ('Remembrance')". Retrieved 2020-08-13.
- ↑ "Reactie Minister Grapperhaus" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-12-27.
- ↑ "Unacceptable remembrance on Nazi-cemetery Ysselsteyn". Annual report- IFUD of human rights 2020. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
- ↑ "Zaterdag 14 september Protest tegen Nazi Expo in Design Museum 's-Hertogenbosch – Antifascistische oud-Verzetsstrijders Nederland".
- ↑ Burghoorn, Alex (29 February 2020). "Niemand neemt succesvolle nazi-expositie over, dus gaat SS-design de kelder weer in". de Volkskrant.
- ↑ Butler, Natacha (7 September 2019). "Nazi design exhibition in Netherlands faces protests". Al Jazeera.
- ↑ "A Nazi Design Show Draws Criticism. Its Curator's Comments Didn't Help". NYTimes.com. 2019-09-17. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
- ↑ "Foto-exposiitie in januari en februari ('Photo exposition in Jan and Feb')". AFVN.nl. 24 Jan 2018. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
- ↑ "'Activist Arthur Graaff met geweld uit militaire beurs in Didam gezet' ('Activist Arthur Graaff evicted with force from military trade fair" (in Nederlands). 2022-11-26. Retrieved 2023-01-12.
- ↑ Tav B&W en Raadsleden - Betr. Witte Anjerperken en ex-SS-lid Bernhard v. L
- ↑ "Bezwaar tegen aanleg Witte Anjer Perk in Woerden". www.woerdensecourant.nl.
- ↑ "Herdenk nazi's niet ('Do not remember nazis')" (in Nederlands). Retrieved 2022-12-29.
- ↑ "Articles by Arthur Graaff". Retrieved 2023-01-06.
- ↑ "Articles by Arthur Graaff". Retrieved 2023-01-07.
- ↑ "Encyclopedie voor iedereen ed. 1978, Arthur Graaff | 9789022890097 | Boeken | bol.com". www.bol.com.
- ↑ "Gevonden in Delpher - Leeuwarder courant : hoofdblad van Friesland". www.delpher.nl.
- ↑ "Voor Dummies - Rembrandt voor Dummies (ebook), Arthur Graaff | 9789045357225 | Boeken | bol.com". www.bol.com.
- ↑ "Voor Dummies - Nederland in de Tweede Wereldoorlog voor Dummies, A. Graaff |... | bol.com". www.bol.com.
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