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.

Education in livestock diseases in the tropics at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University started in 1915 at the Institute for Parasitic and Infectious Diseases. Subsequently, the Institute for Tropical and Protozoon Diseases was established in 1948 and here students and veterinarians were trained in tropical animal health. Research and training were mainly focused on African livestock diseases such as tick borne diseases and trypanosomosis. Training possibilities for students included an elective course (‘Tropencursus’), membership of a debating club (‘Tropische Kring’), and a traineeship in a project in a tropical country. From 1987 onwards training, education, research, and management of international collaborative projects in tropical animal health became the shared responsibility of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology and the Office for International Cooperation. This article focuses on the last 50 years and highlights activities such as education, research, newsletters, networks, and projects with African and Asian countries.