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With the installation of five Stolpersteine, Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� honours the lives of four students and a professor who died during the Second World War. These are the stories of Marianne Helena Blazer, Jacob Johannes Bol, Jacob van Gelderen, Cornelis van Lier, and Henny Mimi de Vries, collected and written down by students from the German Language and Culture programme.

Marianne Helena (Panny) Blazer

Marianne Helena Blazer, affectionately known as Panny, was studying Medicine when the Second World War broke out. Born on 21 August 1917 in a Jewish family in Rotterdam, she moved to Utrecht in 1936 to pursue her studies. An active member of the Utrechtse Vrouwelijke Studenten Vereeniging, she was deeply involved in student life in the city, where she also met her future husband, Leendert Tinus de Jong.

Marianne’s life and ambitions were abruptly cut short by the systematic persecution of Jews during the war. On 10 November 1942, she and her husband were deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered three days later, on 13 November 1942, at just 25 years old.

More than eighty years later, her name now has a permanent place at Domplein. Along with the other Stolpersteine, we remember Marianne and the hundreds of other members of the academic community whose lives were destroyed. These stories remind us of the ongoing need to remain vigilant against exclusion and discrimination.

- Larissa Bies

Jacob Johannes (Jacques) Bol

Jacob Johannes Bol, better known as Jacques, was a promising student of Art History. Born on 13 August 1922 in Dordrecht, he grew up in a loving family. He started his studies in 1941 and, as a student assistant to Professor Willem Vogelsang, his academic future seemed assured.

During a time when freedom of thought was under great pressure, Jacques refused to compromise on his principles. By refusing to sign the loyalty declaration in 1943, he upheld the academic values central to university life: independence, critical thinking, and intellectual integrity.

This decision had serious consequences. He was immediately expelled from the university and, on 6 May 1943, was deported along with thousands of other students to Kamp Ommen and a labour camp near Berlin. From there, he continued to send letters and drawings to his family. However, this would prove fatal: in February 1944, he was arrested on suspicion of espionage.

Jacques died on 4 May 1945, probably in the Red Cross hospital in Cham, Germany.

- Jorja Vorsselman

Jacob (Bob) van Gelderen

Jacob van Gelderen was an economist, politician, and professor of Sociology. He was born on 10 March 1891 in Amsterdam, in a Jewish middle-class family. He wrote for socialist magazines, worked at the Amsterdam Bureau of Statistics, was a professor of Political Economy in Batavia, and an advisor on colonial affairs and economics at the Ministry of the Colonies.

In 1937, he entered the Dutch parliament for the SDAP and became a professor at Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��. He was a strong advocate for social justice and the rights of oppressed peoples. In his lectures, he emphasised the importance of objectivity and facts, believing that personal convictions never needed to conflict with these principles.

Jacob foresaw the disastrous consequences of the German invasion. “It is over,” he said to his fellow SDAP member Jozef Emanuel Stokvis. Four days later, Jacob and his family took their own lives. As with other war victims connected to our university, his story shows how the war destroyed academic careers and lives in various ways.

- Mirco Vantangoli

Cornelis (Kees) van Lier

Cornelis van Lier – Kees – was born on 5 June 1912 in Utrecht. As a student of Mathematics and Physics, he was actively involved in university life, serving as a member of the Utrecht Student Corps and the Faculteitenblad, and as president of the Algemeene Debating Club. His promising academic career and life ended tragically during the early days of World War II.

On 19 January 1940, Kees married Bernardina Daamen. Drafted into the army, he served until the Dutch forces surrendered and an attempt to flee to England with his pregnant wife and parents followed. When the escape failed, the family made the devastating decision to take their own lives rather than live under Nazi occupation. On 14 May 1940, in Haarlem, Kees’s life ended at just 27 years old.

In commemorating Kees, we reflect on the multi-faceted devastating consequences of war. We honour the memory of a promising academic whose potential contributions to science and society were forever lost.

- Sarah Baldassi

Henny (Mimi) de Vries

As the persecution of Jewish citizens intensified, Henny de Vries – known as Mimi – a student of Dutch Literature, went into hiding in Lunteren on 13 July 1942. She and her sister Meta were discovered and imprisoned in the Oranjehotel prison in Scheveningen, a notorious detention centre for resistance fighters and others deemed enemies of the Nazi regime.

After twelve days, on 12 Augustus, the sisters were transported to Kamp Westerbork. On 24 August, they were among 963 prisoners deported to Auschwitz with transport number 74. Henny was murdered immediately upon arrival on 3 September 1943. She was only 29 years old – her academic career and future destroyed by systematic persecution.

Henny’s hometown of Amersfoort, where she was born on 27 September 1913, has already placed a Herdenkingssteen. Now, Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� joins in commemorating her life and academic journey, ensuring that the impact of the Holocaust is understood not merely as statistics, but as the loss of real lives, filled with aspirations, relationships, and unrealised potential.

- Kayleigh Dijkerman