Willy Dols (

Sittard Sittard (; ) is a city in the Netherlands, situated in the southernmost province of Limburg. The town is part of the municipality of Sittard-Geleen and has almost 37.500 inhabitants in 2016. In its east, Sittard borders the German municipali ...

, 21 March 1911 –

Schwesing Schwesing ( da, Svesing, North Frisian: ''Swiasing'') is a municipality in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. History From September 25, 1944 until December 11, 1944 a concentration camp was established near Glasau. ...

, 5 November 1944) was a Dutch

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

dialectologist Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , ''-logia'') is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their assoc ...

and

phonologist Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

. He was the first one to make a profound study of the

diphthongization In historical linguistics, vowel breaking, vowel fracture, or diphthongization is the sound change of a monophthong into a diphthong or triphthong. Types Vowel breaking may be unconditioned or conditioned. It may be triggered by the presence of ...

which is typical for the

Sittard dialect The Sittard dialect ( nl, Sittards, li, Zittesj, german: Selfkanter Platt, in reference to the variety used in Germany) is a Limburgish dialect spoken mainly in the Dutch city of Sittard. It is also spoken in Koningsbosch and in a small part of ...

, in his dissertation which was not published until nine years after his death.

Biography

Dols was a brilliant pupil of Jac. van Ginneken at the

Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, nl, Radboud Universiteit , formerly ''Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen'') is a public research university located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The university bears the name of Saint Radboud, a 9th century D ...

. He already made several publications during his study and graduated

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

in 1938. Despite the crisis, people were searching several academic posts abroad (first in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, then in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

) for him. After the breakout of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, however, these plans had to be given up. During the first four years of the war, Dols worked as a teacher in his place of birth. In the meanwhile, he kept working on his dissertation for which he gathered the data. In August 1944, Dols had to flee to his sister in

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both banks of ...

because of the imminent ''

Arbeitseinsatz ''Arbeitseinsatz'' (german: for 'labour deployment') was a forced labour category of internment within Nazi Germany (german: Zwangsarbeit) during World War II. When German men were called up for military service, Nazi German authorities rounded ...

''. However, because of

Operation Market Garden Operation Market Garden was an Allies of World War II, Allied military operation during the World War II, Second World War fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 27 September 1944. Its objective was to create a Salient (military), salient into G ...

, he was also forced to flee from there. On 28 September, Dols arrived in

Putten Putten () is a municipality and town in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands. It had a population of in . It is located in the coastal area of the old Zuiderzee (Southern Sea). To the east of Putten lies the Veluwe, the biggest national par ...

where a

raid Raid, RAID or Raids may refer to: Attack * Raid (military), a sudden attack behind the enemy's lines without the intention of holding ground * Corporate raid, a type of hostile takeover in business * Panty raid, a prankish raid by male college ...

by the Germans took place two days later. All men and boys were deported from the village, including Willy Dols. However, he could still entrust his almost-finished dissertation to the wife of Carel Beke, a future children's book's author, after having helped Beke and his family escaping from Arnhem. Dols first arrived at the

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, th ...

, then he was transported to the

Schwesing Concentration Camp Schwesing ( da, Svesing, North Frisian: ''Swiasing'') is a municipality in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. History From September 25, 1944 until December 11, 1944 a concentration camp was established near Glasau. ...

, where 1500 people had been detained. After ten weeks of very bad treatment, Dols succumbed to

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

. After the war, his dissertation was prepared for the press with the support of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

References

''Onze Taal'', January 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dols, Willy 1911 births 1944 deaths Linguists from the Netherlands People from Sittard Radboud University Nijmegen alumni 20th-century linguists Dutch people who died in Nazi concentration camps People who died in Neuengamme concentration camp