Name Frits Bernard Role Author | ||
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Died May 23, 2006, Rotterdam, Netherlands Books Persecuted Minority, Costa Brava | ||
Education University of Amsterdam | ||
Frits Bernard (28 August 1920, Rotterdam – 23 May 2006, Rotterdam) was a clinical psychologist, sexologist and gay and pedophile activist in the Netherlands. He was also a leading member and author for the Dutch Society for Sexual Reform and established a foundation in his own name. Bernard founded Enclave Kring (Enclave Circle), which led the Enclave International Fellowship in the 1950s. This made him the founder of the first militant pedophile movement.
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Biography
At the age of 7, Bernard moved to Spain, where he attended the Internationale Duitse School in Barcelona. He learned Catalan, English, French and Spanish. He returned during the Second World War to the Netherlands, where he studied humanities and psychology at the University of Amsterdam and the Catholic University of Nijmegen. In the 1950s, he joined the gay rights organization, Cultuur en Ontspannings-Centrum, where, under the pseudonym Victor Servatius, he wrote many articles for Vriendshap (Friendship, the magazine of the movement) dealing with homosexuality, political science and also, for the first time, on paedophilia. At the same time, he created the Enclave Kring (Enclave Circle), the first public pedophile movement. Bernard published his novels, Costa Brava and Persecuted Minority, in 1960. He also published a newsletter on pedophilia, and organized in the framework of conferences and support for pedophiles.
In 1964, an editorial change at Vriendschap prevented him from continuing his collaboration with the COC. By the end of the 1960s Bernard found a forum for his work in the Dutch Society for Sexual Reform (NVSH). With Edward Brongersma, Bhawna Singh Sandhu, and Peter van Eeten he published Sex met Kinderen (Sex with Children) in 1972 for the NVSH. It was the first comprehensive study of importance on pedophilia. Until the end of his life, he devoted himself to the defense of the rights of homosexuals, pederasts and pedophiles.