Jan Remco Theodoor Campert (

Spijkenisse Spijkenisse () is a city in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Following an administrative reform in 2015, it is part of the municipality of Nissewaard, and has a population of 72,500. It covers an area of of which is water. It is part ...

, 15 August 1902 – 12 January 1943) was a Dutch journalist, theater critic and writer who lived in Amsterdam. During the

German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II Despite Dutch neutrality, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of Fall Gelb (Case Yellow). On 15 May 1940, one day after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces surrendered. The Dutch government and the royal family re ...

Campert was arrested for aiding Jews. He was held in the Neuengamme concentration camp, where he died. Campert is best known for his poem "" ("The Song of the Eighteen Dead"), describing the execution of 18 resistance workers (15 resistance fighters and three communists) by the German occupier. Written in 1941 and based on an account published in '' Het Parool'', the poem was clandestinely published in 1943 as a poetry card (''rijmprent'') by what became the De Bezige Bij publishing house to raise money to hide Jewish children. He was the father of the novelist and poet

Remco Campert Remco Campert (28 July 1929 – 4 July 2022) was a Dutch author, poet and columnist. Early years Remco Wouter Campert was born in The Hague, son of writer and poet Jan Campert, author of the poem ''De achttien dooden'', and actress Joekie Bro ...

. The

Jan Campert Prize The Jan Campert Prize (in Dutch: Jan Campert-prijs) is a Dutch literary prize established in 1948, which is awarded annually for works of poetry by the Jan Campert Foundation. The foundation was created in 1948 to honour Jan Campert, considered by ...

is named after him.

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