Hoogleraar Theoretische Wijsbegeerte, Geschiedenis van de Wijsbegeerte en Psychologie met uitzondering van de Empirische Psychologie

"Het was helemaal niet moeilijk afgestudeerden te vinden die wilden meewerken aan een cursus arbeidsmarktoriëntatie. De meeste mensen vinden het leuk om over hun werk te vertellen. "Aldus Saskia Franken, stage-coördinator bij de faculteit Letteren. Om afstudeerders een steuntje in de rug te krijgen ontplooit de Universiteit Utrecht, met de bereidwillige en enthousiaste steun van alumni, diverse initiatieven

It is well known that many Jews were killed by the German occupier in the Netherlands in the Second World War. At the beginning of the war, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht had one Jewish Professor, Jacob Roos, and five Jewish students. The fate of all of them was terrible. Of the seven students, only three survived, one of whom was Philip Cohen. He graduated midway through the war and then went hiding in De Bilt. When there was a razzia in De Bilt, he went to the faculty and hid above the horse stables. The faculty cooperated in this and thereby saved his life. Professor J. Roos and the other four students - S.B. Cohen, E.I. Boässon, W.S. Marsman, and R. Franken - did not survive the war. They were all arrested, transported to a concentration camp, and murdered there. There were eleven Jewish veterinarians in the Netherlands at that time: A. Herschel, M. Slager, R.H. van Gelder, A. Wolf, F Block, S. Simons, H.S. Frenkel, S.I.M. Mogendorff, E.H. Kampelmacher, A. Clarenburg, and J. van der Hoeden. Only five of them survived the war, mainly because they went into hiding. They had difficult lives during the war, but after the war most of them had successful careers. Another five veterinarians were arrested, transported to concentration camps, and murdered there. One was not killed by the Germans, but committed suicide during the war. These personal histories indicate that the fate of Jewish veterinarians in the Second World War was lamentable, for approximately half of them did not survive. However, the fate of those who did survive was very positive, because of the careers they made afterwards.