Jaap polak biography books

Jacob "Jaap" Polak was born to a religious Jewish family in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, that could trace its roots in the country back 200 years. He attended a Jewish elementary school until age 12, and then entered a commercial high school, where he studied accounting. After graduating, he took a job at the Amsterdam Carlton Hotel. While working, he also studied to become a certified public tax consultant; in 1937, he passed the qualifying exam, and joined his father's accounting practice. In 1943, during Nazi Germany's occupation of the Netherlands, Polak was deported to the Westerbork camp. There he became principal of the camp's school. The school was equipped with books and supplies because the Nazis wanted to foster the illusion that Jews were simply on their way to "resettlement in the east." Most children attended class for only a week before being transported. In February 1944, Polak was deported to the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. He survived to be liberated by the Red Army in April 1945 and then a bout with typhus. His parents Frederick and Grietje Polak and sister Juul died in the Holocaust. After the war, he returned to the Netherlands and his accounting practice. He married Catharina (Ina) Soep, with whom he had three chi