Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema
Encyclopedia
Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema DFC RMWO (April 3, 1917 – September 26, 2007), was a Dutch wartime RAF-pilot, Dutch spy and writer. He was a Knight 4th class of the Military William Order.
In the Netherlands he became famous as the writer of the 1970 book Soldaat van Oranje (Dutch
: Soldier of Orange
) in which he describes his experiences in World War II, and which was made into a 1977 film directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Rutger Hauer.
, on Java
in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia
), the son of Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, senior, and Cornelia Vreede. His family moved to The Hague
in the 1930s, and then Wassenaar
. He travelled to the US in 1938, writing a book of his experiences in 1939, Rendezvous in San Francisco.
He was a law student at Leiden University
when the Second World War broke out. He joined the Dutch army reserve, and became involved in the underground after Germany
occupied the Netherlands
. He managed to escape to the United Kingdom as a crew member aboard of the Saint Cerque, a Swiss merchant ship in June 1941, together with Bram van der Stok
and two others.
) set up a secret service group known as the Mews, after Chester Square Mews where they lived in London. The goal was to establish a contact with the Resistance in the Netherlands. Several agents were parachute
d, others were put ashore at the beaches of Noordwijk
and Scheveningen. Roelfzema did not receive much cooperation from the Dutch government, and Van 't Sant was forced to transfer control over the CID to Colonel Mattheus de Bruyne of the Dutch Marine Corps.
De Bruyne did not do a good job. He failed to recognize the fact that his agents were arrested and continued to broadcast messages – for the Germans. The usual procedure for transmitting messages was to include small errors. If an agent was forced to work for the Germans, he would leave out the errors. The result should be that contact was aborted immediately. De Bruyne, however, concluded that the agents simply forgot to use the security-checks and even sent messages to remind them. Other intelligence blunders were the maps he had attached to the wall in his London office, showing the landing sites of Noordwijk, Scheveningen and Walcheren in full detail.
Hazelhoff Roelfzema and De Bruyne did not get on. De Bruyne threatened to court-martial for ignoring an order – at the same time Hazelhoff Roelfzema was proposed for the Willemsorde (the highest military decoration in the Netherlands). He was awarded the Willemsorde (Knight, 4th class) in 1942: the court-martial was cancelled after a meeting with Dutch Navy minister Furstner.
The 1979 history of the Special Operations Executive
network in the Netherlands
by M.R.D. Foot has confirmed the degree of German penetration of SOE's Dutch networks, something SOE denied during the War. The British intelligence effort in the Netherlands was penetrated throughout the war, from the capture of two SIS
agents, Captain Sigismund Payne Best
and Major Richard Stevens
in the Venlo Incident
in November 1939, to the capture of some 50 British and Dutch agents by the Abwehr
and the Sicherheitsdienst
in Operation North Pole.
in 1942. He attended flying school in Canada, where he became the best pilot cadet of his group.
He returned to England in 1944, and joined No. 139 Squadron RAF
, part of the elite Pathfinder Force, tasked with illuminating targets for the night bombers of RAF Bomber Command
. He made 72 sorties in Mosquito bombers, of which 25 went to Berlin, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
. He accompanied her back to the Netherlands in May 1945, and piloted the airplane in which Princess Juliana
, Prince Bernhard and their daughter Princess Beatrix
flew back to the Netherlands. Hazelhoff Roelfzema helped Beatrix walk her first steps on liberated Dutch soil.
's Today Show and Tonight Show
in New York City. He later wrote for Dutch newspapers. He was appointed director of Radio Free Europe
in Munich in 1956. Later he was involved in a failed attempt by the CIA to support the South Moluccas Republic's bid for independence from the rule of Indonesian dictator Sukarno.
He was involved in the creation of Racing Team Holland, attracting sponsors using his fame. His book Soldier of Orange (Soldaat van Oranje), published in 1970, relates his adventures during the war and the political turmoil of the Dutch government in exile. It attracted a lot of attention, even more so when it was made into a film by Paul Verhoeven in 1977, starring Rutger Hauer as Hazelhoff Roelfzema. The film brought Verhoeven, Hauer and Hazelhoff Roelfzema to wider public attention outside the Netherlands, and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
In 1980, Hazelhoff Roelfzema played a ceremonial role as one of two kings of arms
at the inauguration of Queen Beatrix. He was close to Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, whom he entertained frequently at his home in Maui
.
He moved to Hawaii in early 1973, and joined energy company Barnwell Industries Inc. as a director in 1977. He wrote a second autobiography, In Pursuit of Life, in 2000. He died on September 26, 2007 at his home in Āhualoa
near Honokaa, on the Island of Hawaii
, at the age of 90. He was survived by his wife, Karin Steensma, and their son, daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter.
In the Netherlands he became famous as the writer of the 1970 book Soldaat van Oranje (Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
: Soldier of Orange
Soldier of Orange
Soldier of Orange is a 1977 Dutch film directed by Paul Verhoeven and produced by Rob Houwer, starring Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé. The film is set during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, and shows how individual students have different roles in the war...
) in which he describes his experiences in World War II, and which was made into a 1977 film directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Rutger Hauer.
Early life
Hazelhoff was born in SurabayaSurabaya
Surabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million , and the capital of the province of East Java...
, on Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
), the son of Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, senior, and Cornelia Vreede. His family moved to The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
in the 1930s, and then Wassenaar
Wassenaar
Wassenaar is a town in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. A fairly affluent suburb of The Hague, Wassenaar lies 10 km north of that city on the N44 highway near the North Sea coast. It is part of the Haaglanden region...
. He travelled to the US in 1938, writing a book of his experiences in 1939, Rendezvous in San Francisco.
He was a law student at Leiden University
Leiden University
Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
when the Second World War broke out. He joined the Dutch army reserve, and became involved in the underground after Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
occupied the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. He managed to escape to the United Kingdom as a crew member aboard of the Saint Cerque, a Swiss merchant ship in June 1941, together with Bram van der Stok
Bram van der Stok
Bram van der Stok, MBE , also referred to as Bob van der Stok, was the most decorated aviator in Dutch history, as well as one of the three men to escape to freedom in "the Great Escape" from German POW camp Stalag Luft III....
and two others.
Secret agent
In London, Hazelhoff Roelfzema, with the help of general François van 't Sant, director of the Dutch CID (Central Intelligence Service) and Col. Euan Rabagliatti (Secret Intelligence ServiceSecret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
) set up a secret service group known as the Mews, after Chester Square Mews where they lived in London. The goal was to establish a contact with the Resistance in the Netherlands. Several agents were parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
d, others were put ashore at the beaches of Noordwijk
Noordwijk
Noordwijk is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of 51.53 km² and had a population of 24,707 in May 2006....
and Scheveningen. Roelfzema did not receive much cooperation from the Dutch government, and Van 't Sant was forced to transfer control over the CID to Colonel Mattheus de Bruyne of the Dutch Marine Corps.
De Bruyne did not do a good job. He failed to recognize the fact that his agents were arrested and continued to broadcast messages – for the Germans. The usual procedure for transmitting messages was to include small errors. If an agent was forced to work for the Germans, he would leave out the errors. The result should be that contact was aborted immediately. De Bruyne, however, concluded that the agents simply forgot to use the security-checks and even sent messages to remind them. Other intelligence blunders were the maps he had attached to the wall in his London office, showing the landing sites of Noordwijk, Scheveningen and Walcheren in full detail.
Hazelhoff Roelfzema and De Bruyne did not get on. De Bruyne threatened to court-martial for ignoring an order – at the same time Hazelhoff Roelfzema was proposed for the Willemsorde (the highest military decoration in the Netherlands). He was awarded the Willemsorde (Knight, 4th class) in 1942: the court-martial was cancelled after a meeting with Dutch Navy minister Furstner.
The 1979 history of the Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
network in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
by M.R.D. Foot has confirmed the degree of German penetration of SOE's Dutch networks, something SOE denied during the War. The British intelligence effort in the Netherlands was penetrated throughout the war, from the capture of two SIS
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
agents, Captain Sigismund Payne Best
Sigismund Payne Best
Captain Sigismund Payne Best OBE was a British Secret Intelligence Service agent during World War I and World War II...
and Major Richard Stevens
Richard Stevens
Richard Stevens may refer to:* Richard Y. Stevens, North Carolina politician* W. Richard Stevens, author of Unix and networking books* Richard Stevens , author of the webcomic Diesel Sweeties...
in the Venlo Incident
Venlo Incident
The Venlo Incident was a covert German Sicherheitsdienst engineered capture of two British SIS agents on 9 November 1939....
in November 1939, to the capture of some 50 British and Dutch agents by the Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
and the Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
in Operation North Pole.
Royal Air Force
Hazelhoff Roelfzema became frustrated by the treatment and joined the Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
in 1942. He attended flying school in Canada, where he became the best pilot cadet of his group.
He returned to England in 1944, and joined No. 139 Squadron RAF
No. 139 Squadron RAF
No. 139 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron that was fighter unit in World War I and a bomber unit from World War II until the 1960s.-Formation and World War I:...
, part of the elite Pathfinder Force, tasked with illuminating targets for the night bombers of RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s stood at the peak of its postwar military power with the V bombers and a supplemental...
. He made 72 sorties in Mosquito bombers, of which 25 went to Berlin, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)
The Distinguished Flying Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force and other services, and formerly to officers of other Commonwealth countries, for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against...
Adjudant to the Queen
In April 1945, Hazelhoff Roelfzema was appointed adjudant (assistant) to Queen WilhelminaWilhelmina of the Netherlands
Wilhelmina was Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1890 to 1948. She ruled the Netherlands for fifty-eight years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World War I and World War II, the economic crisis of 1933, and the decline of the Netherlands as a major colonial...
. He accompanied her back to the Netherlands in May 1945, and piloted the airplane in which Princess Juliana
Juliana of the Netherlands
Juliana was the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands between 1948 and 1980. She was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry...
, Prince Bernhard and their daughter Princess Beatrix
Beatrix of the Netherlands
Beatrix is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands comprising the Netherlands, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Aruba. She is the first daughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. She studied law at Leiden University...
flew back to the Netherlands. Hazelhoff Roelfzema helped Beatrix walk her first steps on liberated Dutch soil.
After the war
Hazelhoff Roelfzema led a fairly restless life after the war, including a stint in Hollywood as an actor and then a writer. During the 1950s he worked as a writer for NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Today Show and Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
in New York City. He later wrote for Dutch newspapers. He was appointed director of Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
in Munich in 1956. Later he was involved in a failed attempt by the CIA to support the South Moluccas Republic's bid for independence from the rule of Indonesian dictator Sukarno.
He was involved in the creation of Racing Team Holland, attracting sponsors using his fame. His book Soldier of Orange (Soldaat van Oranje), published in 1970, relates his adventures during the war and the political turmoil of the Dutch government in exile. It attracted a lot of attention, even more so when it was made into a film by Paul Verhoeven in 1977, starring Rutger Hauer as Hazelhoff Roelfzema. The film brought Verhoeven, Hauer and Hazelhoff Roelfzema to wider public attention outside the Netherlands, and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
In 1980, Hazelhoff Roelfzema played a ceremonial role as one of two kings of arms
King of Arms
King of Arms is the senior rank of an officer of arms. In many heraldic traditions, only a king of arms has the authority to grant armorial bearings. In other traditions, the power has been delegated to other officers of similar rank.-Heraldic duties:...
at the inauguration of Queen Beatrix. He was close to Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, whom he entertained frequently at his home in Maui
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
.
He moved to Hawaii in early 1973, and joined energy company Barnwell Industries Inc. as a director in 1977. He wrote a second autobiography, In Pursuit of Life, in 2000. He died on September 26, 2007 at his home in Āhualoa
Ahualoa, Hawaii
Āhualoa is an unincorporated rural area along the Hamakua Coast on the Island of Hawaii, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States.The name is believed to mean either "long mound" or "long cloud", in the Hawaiian language...
near Honokaa, on the Island of Hawaii
Hawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
, at the age of 90. He was survived by his wife, Karin Steensma, and their son, daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter.
External links
- Obituary, Honolulu Advertiser, September 28, 2007
- Obituary, The Times, October 1, 2007
- Obituary, The Guardian, November 15, 2007
- Literary Prize, Erik Hazelhoff Prijs, September 5, 2009