Jacques Presser

In 1930, he came into contact with the renowned historian Jan Romein, who helped him to get a job as an instructor at the Instituut voor Historische Leergangen, which launched his academic career.

Because of the Nazi anti-Jewish policies, he lost his job at Vossius Gymnasium, but he managed to find work as a teacher at the Jewish Lyceum.

The loss of his first wife marked Presser for life, but he managed to escape from the Nazis by going into hiding in several places, including in the small town Lunteren.

In contrast to the common hagiographies of the French emperor, Presser is quite critical of the personality and the political and military activity of Napoleon.

Already in the introduction to the book, Presser makes quite clear that one of his main intentions is to try to dispel various euphemisms and legends about Napoleon.

The book also contains extensive chapters on the pillars in French society which he used to strengthen his rule: Propaganda, Police & Justice, the Church, Education and (of course) the Army.

Commissioned by Elsevier Publishers in 1941, Presser wrote a comprehensive history of the United States and completed the first version while in hiding.

At the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence in 1976, a fourth, revised and updated edition was published with a postscript on the period after 1965 by the expert Professor Rob Kroes.

He worked on this project for fifteen years and made full use of the vast archives of the Dutch Institute for War Documentation.

The author pays attention to the role of the Dutch bureaucracy in the segregation and the isolation of the Jews and conveys the utter despair felt by people whose whole world had crumbled and would be destroyed.

His book on the Revolt of the Netherlands against Spain (1568–1648), first published in 1941 with a second print in 1942 that was soon prohibited by the German occupiers, was reprinted another four times after the Second World War.

His book The Night of the Girondists, based on his war time experiences, received literary prizes and became an international best-seller.

Set in the Dutch transit camp of Westerbork, the leading character of this book is an assimilated Jewish teacher collaborating with the Nazis.