Closing by the Nazis of the University of Leyden, oldest and most famous in Holland, followed protests by faculty and students against the dismissal of a Jewish professor, it is revealed in a document smuggled out of the Netherlands and published by the North American Newspaper Alliance.
The Jewish instructor was Eduard Maurits Meyers, Professor of Civil and International Law, revered by his pupils as a scholar and guide, who was ousted last November together with several Jewish colleagues.
The protests of “Aryan” students and teachers against the dismissal were led by Prof. Rudolph Pabus Cleveringa, a former pupil of Prof. Meyers, who made a daring speech to the juridical faculty in which he said that “there was in this case not the slightest reason why the occupying authorities could not have left Dr. Meyers where he was” and asserted that “we cannot cease believing that he should be here and that, if fate will it, return he shall.”
Next morning Prof. Cleveringa was arrested and sent to a German concentration camp. He had expected this and had told his wife to pack his bags. His arrest was followed by student demonstrations that convinced the authorities Leyden’s spirit could not be subdued and the closing of the university followed.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
