Petrus Christiaan Flu

Alexander Duparc Collection

Family page

Petrus Christiaan Flu, son of Johan Hendrik Flu and Amalia Jacoba Labadie to:
Henrieta Christina Vereul, daughter of Paul Charles Vereul and Anna Margaretha Arons

1) Prof Dr Paul Christiaan Flu, birth 10 Feb 1884 Paramaribo, died 19 Dec 1945 Leiden
Universitet Leiden:
Paul Christiaan Flu: a Surinamese professor in a time of war

23 April 2018

Paul Christiaan Flu, originally from Surinam, was a brilliant tropical doctor, who in 1938 rose to the position of Rector Magnificus of Leiden University. The war years brought his lightning career to an abrupt end: his son was murdered and he him self was imprisoned in a concentration camp. A sad family history.

4 January 1944. In the late afternoon, nurse Arnoldus Krom was cycling through Oegstgeest, having just left the Eendegeest nursing home. At the junction with the main road from The Hague to Amsterdam, he suddenly heard a muffled explosion comin g from inside a black official car. The door of the car flew open and three men got out and dragged a body onto the side of the road. SS officer J.W. Hoffmann took aim with his pistol, pulled the trigger and fired two shots. The nurse was ordere d to be on his way.

It was at this particular spot that Hans Flu, son of the Leiden professor and former Rector Magnificus Paul Christiaan Flu, met his death. It was the Nazi's ultimate revenge. The day before, members of the Resistance had attempted an assassinatio n at Leiden's Rapenburg and even though Hans had nothing to do with this, the Nazis wanted him dead. The cards were stacked against him. He supposedly got into a fight with a German some time previously who had harrassed his pregnant wife, an d he had expressed less than positive views about the NSB. And on top of that, his mother's maiden name was the Jewish Polak. To add fuel to the fire, Hans was dark-skinned. There was no place in the new world order of the German occupiers fo r a Mischling or half-breed.

And so, Hans was taken from his doctor's practice that day, driven off and summarily executed. Two other Leiden residents were apparently 'shot while fleeing'. A further 35 Leiden notables were deported to Sint-Michielsgestel hostage camp and Cam p Vught. Among them were Leiden professors Rudolph Cleveringa, Eduard Meijers and Paul Christiaan Flu. The last of these was the father of the unfortunate Hans Flu, although he was not yet aware of his son's fate.
Married notice 22 Aug 1908 Paramaribo to:
Elisabeth Marie Polak, birth 1 Apr 1883 Paramaribo, died 9 Jun 1967 's-Heer Arendskerke, daughter of Joseph Aron Polak and Maria Dientje Simons

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