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Arie Nielson

Arie Nielson was a teacher for the LOI course Elementary Latin that Margot Frank followed while in hiding.

Person

  • Arie Cornelis Nielson
  • Born on: July 8, 1912
  • Born in: Rotterdam, Nederland
  • Died on: Jan. 12, 1997

Arie Cornelis Nielson was born on 12 June 1912 as the son of Cornelis Nielson (3 May 1880) and Elisabeth Wilhelmina Nielson-Visser (30 November 1884). He had an older sister Marie Elisabeth Nielson (12 December 1908).[1]

In 1936, Nielson had graduated cum laude from the candidate examination in classical literature at Leiden University.[2] He then became a lecturer at the Leiden Educational Institutions (LOI), where he taught the 'Elementary Latin' course. While Margot Frank was in hiding in the Secret Annex, she took this course in the name of Bep Voskuijl. On her homework, Nielson wrote compliments almost weekly because of her good results.[3]

In his hometown of Rotterdam, Nielson was kyrkvärd (churchwarden) of the Swedish Church.[4]

During the razzia of Rotterdam on 10 and 11 November 1944, he was arrested and deported to Nazi Germany for the forced Labour Deployment. There he was put to work in Dingden, a village near Bocholt. With five hundred other men, he was housed in the ballroom of a local pub. Because of his academic background and commitment to the church, he enjoyed prestige and acted as an ombudsman for the other Dutch men posted there. He also assisted the doctor and pastor. After the war, he returned to Rotterdam.[5]

Otto Frank sent Nielson a copy of The Secret Annex in June 1947. He wrote: "You took great care with the lessons, which gave my daughter Margot great satisfaction […]".

Nielson replied on 17 July 1947, writing: "During the war hundreds of people in hiding [...] attended our lessons. [...] I have kept hundreds of letters from this time as a precious memory of the many frightened and lonely people in hiding, to whom my lessons brought comfort and culture […]” [6]

Nielson regularly translated Latin texts. In 1949, in collaboration with the lawyer A. Dirkzwager, he published a translation of Erasmus's In Praise of Folly.[7] 

Source Personal Data.[8] Addresses: Rodenrijschelaan 37a, Rotterdam.[9]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Stadsarchief Rotterdam, Bevolkingsregistratie, gezinskaarten, toegang 494-03, inv. nr. 851-344: Cornelis Nielson en Elisabeth Visser.
  2. ^ “Academische examens”, Leidsch Dagblad, 3 april 1936.
  3. ^ Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), reg. code A_MFrank_I_073-109, Zie ook: Anne Frank, Diary Version B, 17 november 1943, in: The Cllected Works, transl. by Susan Massotty, London: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019.
  4. ^ De ‘dominee’ deed z’n best’, Algemeen Dagblad, Rotterdam, 24-11-1984. Via Delpher.
  5. ^ 'De "dominee" deed z'n best', Algemeen Dagblad, Rotterdam, 24-11-1984; Hubert van Hove, Reis naar het einde. Razzia van Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Studentendrukwerk Groningen, 2023.
  6. ^ AFS, AFC, Otto Frank Archief, reg. code OFA_100: Correspondentie Otto Frank-A.C. Nielson, 1947.
  7. ^ Desiderius Erasmus, Moriae Encomium dat is De lof der Zotheid, Amsterdam: Paris, 1949.
  8. ^ Stadsarchief Rotterdam, Burgerlijke Stand Rotterdam, geboorteakten, toegang 999-01, inv. nr. 1912J, folio nr. j059: Arie Cornelis Nielson; Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie, Den Haag, Centraal archief van overledenen: Persoonskaart A.C. Nielson.
  9. ^ AFS, AFC, reg. code A_MFrank_I_061: Schrijven A.C. Nielson, 15 november 1943.