Jacob (Jaap) Nunes Vaz (20 September 1906 – 13 March 1943) was a Dutch journalist, writer, and editor. He was one of the main editors of ''

Het Parool ''Het Parool'' () is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was first published on 10 February 1941 as a resistance paper during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945). In English, its name means ''The Password'' or ''The Motto' ...

'', an illegal Dutch newspaper founded during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Early life

Jaap Nunes Vaz was born in Amsterdam on 20 September 1906 to Isaac Nunes Vaz and Daatje Kinsbergen. Isaac's father was of

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

ancestry and both of his parents were of

Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

ancestry. Jaap became a journalist once he graduated from school and joined the Onafhankelijke Socialistische Partij, a

revolutionary socialist Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revolu ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in the Netherlands. He held multiple jobs at different press agencies including

Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau The Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau BV (ANP) is the largest news agency in the Netherlands. ANP was founded on 11 December 1934 by the association of Dutch newspapers (NDP). The news agency's founders sought to produce a fast, fair and accurate ...

where he was a star reporter at the time of the German invasion. He was fired from his job in the fall of 1940 after the "Aryan Declaration".

Het Parool

Nunes Vaz hosted the first meeting of the Het Parool editorial board in his room on the

Keizersgracht The Keizersgracht (; "Emperor's canal") is a canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is the second of the three main Amsterdam canals that together form the Grachtengordel, or canal belt, and lies between the inner Herengracht and outer Prinseng ...

. He worked on the editorial board until he became the 5th executive editor, writing lead articles for the paper.

Death

On 25 October 1942, Nunes Vaz was arrested by the Gestapo after his hiding place was discovered in

Wageningen Wageningen () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a historic city in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specialises in life sciences. The municipality had a ...

. He was first sent to a convict prison in

Scheveningen Scheveningen () is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict () of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is popular ...

nicknamed "Orange Hotel" but was eventually transferred to

Sobibór extermination camp Sobibor ( ; ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As an ext ...

via Westerbork where he was murdered on 13 March 1943.

References

Dutch Ashkenazi Jews Dutch male writers Journalists from Amsterdam Resistance members from Amsterdam Dutch Sephardi Jews World War II resistance press activists Dutch Jews who died in the Holocaust Dutch civilians killed in World War II 1906 births 1943 deaths 20th-century Dutch journalists Dutch people who died in Sobibor extermination camp {{Netherlands-bio-stub