Alida Cornelia Maria "Alice" Besseling (23 October 1944 – 22 January 2014) was a city council member for the CDA in the Dutch city of

Alphen aan den Rijn Alphen aan den Rijn (; or "Alphen on the Rhine") is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The city is situated on the banks of the river Oude Rijn (Utrecht and South Holland), Oude Rijn (Old Rhine ...

, and a local and social activist who was instrumental in the recognition of the

Jewish cemetery A Jewish cemetery ( ''beit almin'' or ''beit kvarot'') is a cemetery where Jews are buried in keeping with Halakha, Jewish tradition. Cemeteries are referred to in several different ways in Hebrew, including ''beit kevarot'' (house of s ...

in her hometown. For her work on the city council, her advocacy of women in her political party, and her community activism she was made a member of the

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau () is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has performed acts of special merits for ...

in 2008.

Biography

Alice Besseling was born into a Roman Catholic family in

Hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...

, a small community in

West-Friesland West Frisia (; ; ) is a term that, when used in an international context, refers to the traditionally Frisian areas that are located west of the Dollart (i.e. in the present-day Netherlands). Along with East Frisia and North Frisia, it is one ...

, in 1944. From a young age she was interested in governance, first in youth organizations and later in professional organizationsin 1971 she was working for IBM when the Dutch government passed legislation mandating

works council A works council is a shop-floor organization representing workers that functions as a local/firm-level complement to trade unions but is independent of these at least in some countries. Works councils exist with different names in a variety of re ...

s for larger corporations, and she became the first elected member of the IBM works council. After her marriage she moved to Alphen aan den Rijn, where in 1978 she was elected to the city council for the newly formed

Christian Democratic Appeal The Christian Democratic Appeal ( , CDA) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in the Netherlands. Formed as a federation in 1975 by the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party, and the Christian Historical ...

, a centrist-right coalition of Christian parties. She served on the city council until 1990. During her tenure she was active in supporting weaker members of society; she claimed that "social policy is too important to leave to left-wing parties". With a neighbor, Anke Bakker, she spent fifteen years researching the abandoned and razed Jewish cemetery on the Aarkade in Alphen aan den Rijn, uncovering much of the local Jewish history in the process (later the topic of a book by Bakker). In 2012, the city turned the abandoned cemetery into a city park and placed a monument remembering the Jewish community. Besseling was a founding member of the local women's group for the CDA, and until her death she was a member of her party's provincial women's group. In 2008, her contributions to the community were rewarded with membership in the

. After resigning from the Alphen city council, she worked for eleven years at the Centre for Law in the Information Society at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

, and retired in 2010. Other community activities in Alphen includes founding and serving as a board member of a dance club for elderly singles, as president of the local athletic association Avanti, and as lector in Alphen's St. Boniface church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Besseling, Alice 1944 births 2014 deaths Christian Democratic Appeal politicians Dutch women activists Dutch activists Dutch women in politics Municipal councillors in South Holland People from Alphen aan den Rijn People from Venhuizen Recipients of the Order of Orange-Nassau