Nationality Dutch Years active 1918–1942 | Occupation professor, author Employer University of Nijmegen | |
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Books The Jewish Question in Italy | ||
Dr. Herman de Vries de Heekelingen, D.Litt. (18 June 1880 – 27 July 1942) was a Dutch scholar and author who lived the latter half of his life in Switzerland. He was professor of palaeography at the University of Nijmegen (with specialization in archaeology, prehistory, and ancient history) and was director of its library from 1923–1927.
Contents
De Vries authored of a number of books on the Jewish question, and has been described as an antisemitic ideologue.
Life
De Vries was born in Groningen, Netherlands, and raised in a well-to-do Calvinist merchant family. In 1908, he converted to Roman Catholicism, and began his studies at the University of Fribourg, where he received his doctorate in 1917 with a thesis on Geneva as the birthplace of Dutch Calvinism. He acquired Swiss citizenship in 1921. In 1923, he was appointed to the newly established Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen as associate professor of paleography and diplomatics, and head of the University Library. His politics were anti-modernist and Integralist, and he was a member of the right-leaning Catholic Commission Catholique de Coopération Intellectuelle [Catholic Commission on Intellectual Cooperation].
In 1927, he had a falling out with the management of the University and took his leave. Resettling in Switzerland, he took de Heekelingen to his name. The same year, De Vries founded the "Centre International d'Études sur le Fascisme" [International Centre for Studies on Fascism] (CINEF) in Lausanne, which was devoted to documentation, research, and international distribution of fascist ideology. Among prominent board members were Giovanni Gentile, James Strachey Barnes, Marcel Boulenger, and Lord Sydenham of Combe. On several occasions, De Vries had a personal audience with Benito Mussolini.
In 1932, he founded a Centre International de Documentation sur les Organisations Politiques [Documentation Centre of International Political Organizations] at Château de la Maison Blanche in Yvorne, Vaud, Switzerland. The same year he published a collection of quotations (from Ackerbau [agriculture] to Zucht [breed]) from the writings of leading National Socialist ideologues. The Centre reportedly received discrete contributions from Dorothy Downe (1876–1957).
In the 1930s, De Vries maintained diverse contacts with individuals and obscure associations of an "antisemitic International"; such as the "Pan-Aryan Union" founded by Georg de Pottere (1875–1951) and Edwin I. Cooper (1872–1942) in Vienna; the Princess Mary Karadja, who founded and led a "Christlich-arische Schutz-liga" [Christian-Aryan Protection League] in Locarno; and with Ulrich Fleischhauer's Erfurt-based Welt-Dienst [World-Service]. He was a regular contributor to Ernst Jouin's anti-semitic and anti-masonic Revue internationale des sociétés secrètes [International Review of Secret Societies]. De Vries traveled in Switzerland, France, and Germany giving lectures on the "jüdischen Bedrohung" [Jewish threat].
In 1940, De Vries was called to testify for the defense during a trial in Switzerland. In the case, three young men were accused of distributing an anti-semitic tract by Philippe Lugrin which quoted anti-Christian passages from the Talmud. Prior to testifying, De Vries reportedly traveled to Rome to consult with Augustin Bea.