J. de Kadt (1897–1988)

Jacques de Kadt was born to a Jewish family in Oss, The Netherlands, a son of Roelof de Kadt, a factory manager, and his wife Bertha Koppens. He did not attend university after secondary school and became an office worker; in 1919, he joined the Dutch Communist Party. However, he soon became disillusioned with the party and left in 1924. He described these events in the first volume of his autobiography, Uit mijn communistentijd (From My Communist Days), published in 1965. De Kadt developed into a fierce opponent of Stalin and other totalitarian dictators and an independent left-wing thinker. In 1934, while serving a prison sentence in Amsterdam for sedition, he wrote his first major work, Van tsarisme tot stalinisme (From Tsarism to Stalinism). He also wrote widely on major political developments of the day as well as on cultural, literary, and philosophical topics. In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, de Kadt published his second major work, Het fascisme en de nieuwe vrijheid (Fascism and the New Freedom), predicting the war, the defeat of Fascism, and the emergence of the USA and the USSR as global superpowers. When Nazi Germany invaded The Netherlands in 1940, de Kadt managed to escape to the UK with his parents and two brothers. As they could not find work there, they traveled on to the Dutch East Indies. There de Kadt was interned by the Japanese with his parents and eldest brother, who died during the ordeal. De Kadt returned to the Netherlands in 1946 and joined the newly-founded Labor Party (Partij van de Arbeid or PvdA). From 1948 to 1963, he served as a Member of Parliament for the PvdA and its foreign affairs spokesperson, and edited the party weekly magazine, Paraat. In 1959, he was made a Knight of the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands. In 1972, he published his third major book, De politiek der gematigden (The Politics of the Moderates). He also was editor of the literary magazine Tirade and collaborator of Hollands Maandblad. The other two volumes of his autobiography were Politieke herinneringen van een randfiguur (Political Memories of a Fringe Figure, 1976), and Jaren die dubbel telden (Years That Counted Twice, 1978).