Willy Kruyt ( John William Kruyt; 8 September 1877 – July 1943) was a Dutch Protestant minister and

Christian socialist Christian socialism is a religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing left-wing politics and socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe cap ...

, later Communist, politician.

Background

The son of a Dutch publisher and his Scottish wife, Kruyt studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

at Utrecht and joined the

League of Christian Socialists The League of Christian Socialists ( nl, Bond Christen-Socialisten, or BCS) was a Dutch Christian socialist political party. Party History The BCS was founded in 1907. In the 1918 elections, the first election with a system of proportional repr ...

in 1910.

Early political career

In 1913, he was elected chairman of this party; in 1918, he became its only member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. In the same period, he worked as a Reformed minister at

Gennep Gennep () is a municipality and a city in upper southeastern Netherlands. It lies in the very northern part of the province of Limburg, 18 km south of Nijmegen. Furthermore, it lies on the right bank of the Meuse river, and south of the forest ...

. He formed an alliance with

Willem van Ravesteyn Willem van Ravesteyn (Rotterdam, 15 October 1876 – Rotterdam, 10 June 1970) was a Dutch Communist politician and historian. Ravesteyn studied history at the University of Leiden and was involved in setting up the local branch of the Dutch Soc ...

and

David Wijnkoop David Joseph Wijnkoop (11 March 1876 – 7 May 1941) was a Dutch people, Dutch Communism, communist leader in the first half of the twentieth century. Life He was the eldest son of Rabbi Joseph Wijnkoop and Dientje Milia Nijburg. At the Barl ...

, the two representatives from the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

as well as

Harm Kolthek Harm Kolthek Jr. was a Dutch printer, journalist, trade unionist and libertarian socialist politician. Kolthek led the syndicalist federation of trade unions, the National Labor Secretariat (NAS), from 1907 to 1913. He later founded and led the ...

. When, in 1921, the League had disintegrated due to factional struggles between orthodox Protestants and

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

, Kruyt joined the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

. He stood as a Communist candidate for the 1922 elections, but was not re-elected.

Later career

Following his wife's death, Kruyt emigrated to Berlin where he joined

Workers International Relief The Workers International Relief (WIR) — also known as Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe (IAH) in German and as Международная рабочая помощь (Mezhdunarodny Rabochy Komitet Pomoshchi Golodayushchim Rossii − Mezhrabpom) in R ...

, then to Moscow in 1935 (presumably fleeing from the Nazis) to work at the Lenin State Library. Dissatisfied with Stalinism, he trained as a

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

in the hopes of getting back to the Netherlands this way. From England, he parachuted into Belgium in June 1942. He broke his leg and was arrested by the German occupiers who detained him at

Fort Breendonk Fort Breendonk ( nl, Fort van Breendonk, french: Fort de Breendonk) is a former military installation at Breendonk, near Mechelen, in Belgium which served as a Nazi prison camp (''Auffanglager'') during the German occupation of Belgium during Wo ...

Death

Kruyt was tortured and deported to the

Moabit Moabit () is an inner city locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. As of 2016, around 77,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861, the former industrial and working-class neighbourhood i ...

prison in Berlin where he is thought to have been

executed by firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

in July 1943.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kruyt, Willy 1877 births 1943 deaths 20th-century Dutch Calvinist and Reformed ministers Dutch communists Dutch socialists Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Dutch people of Scottish descent Clergy from Amsterdam Dutch resistance members Dutch prisoners of war in World War II Breendonk prison camp prisoners Dutch people executed by Nazi Germany Politicians from Amsterdam Dutch people executed abroad