JOSEPH WILLEM KOLKMAN
Netherlands
(1906-1944)
Honorary Dutch Vice-Consul in Perpignan, France, and after the consulate was closed, head of the Office Néerlandais, was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations on February 17, 2013. Kolkman made many attempts to free refugees from the French internment camps and help them leave France. He defied orders of the Dutch government in exile that wanted to give preference to refugees who would join the Free Dutch Army, and in some cases falsified information submitted to the French authorities, by registering Jews as Christians and obtaining false medical certificates. Kolkman did not leave France when the Office Néerlandais was closed in July 1942, and when he and his wife finally tried to escape through the Pyrenees, they were captured. Kolkman’s wife was eventually freed, but he was incarcerated in the Dora-Nordhausen concentration camp and perished during transport to Lublin at the beginning of 1944.