CURRICULUM VITAE

Life of Jules Schelvis

Jules Schelvis (1921) was arrested with his wife and in-laws in Amsterdam during the large-scale round-up of 26 May 1943, and deported via Westerbork to Sobibor. His wife and in-laws were murdered that same day. Schelvis succeeded in joining a group that was sent to a work camp, which saved his life. After moving through a series of different camps working as a printer, he returned to Amsterdam after the fall of Nazi Germany to build a new life.

After retiring as head of Human Resources at newspaper Het Vrije Volk (social-democratic daily newspaper), Schelvis began to write. A portion of his work is autobiographical and aimed at a broad audience, and deals with keeping the memory of the Shoah alive. His research on Sobibor resulted in a meticulously written monography: Vernietigingskamp Sobibor (Sobibor: A History of a Nazi Death Camp) of 1993. Sobibor can be seen as one of the most destructive of the Nazi concentration camps. Nonetheless, this camp, whose victims included almost 35,000 Jews deported from the Netherlands, has received little scholarly attention. Schelvis's thorough archival work made his book the first serious publication on the topic. What is particularly fascinating and admirable about the book is that though it in no way denies the role played by the author's personal experience, it is characterized by a distanced, scholarly tone. With Vernietigingskamp Sobibor, Schelvis made a major contribution to historical scholarship.

In 2008 a honorary doctorate by the University of Amsterdam has been awarded to Jules Schelvis. Mr. Schelvis's promoter has been professor Hans Blom, emeritus professor of Dutch History since the Middle Ages and former director of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD).

 

 

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