Gerrit Uilenberg est décédé le 2 avril 2020. Né le 14 mars 1929 dans un petit village à l’est des Pays-Bas, son père était directeur d’école primaire. Il obtient son baccalauréat juste après la fin de la guerre puis poursuit des études vétérinaires à Utrecht.

In de tweede helft van de twintigste eeuw veranderde de veearts in een dierenarts. Deze ontwikkeling wordt beschreven aan de hand van ongeveer 120 interviews met vee- en dierenartsen die in de periode 1950-1985 werkzaam waren. Hieruit blijkt dat verschillende sociaaleconomische, politieke en technologische ontwikkelingen van invloed zijn geweest op de maatschappelijke positie van de dierenarts en op de inhoud van het werk zelf. Zo kreeg de georganiseerde dierziektebestrijding een impuls door de toegenomen focus op de productiegroei in de veehouderij, de diergezondheid in het algemeen én de bescherming van de volksgezondheid. In deze periode kreeg dierenwelzijn steeds meer aandacht en nam de medische zorg voor gezelschapsdieren, recreatie- en sportpaarden een steeds belangrijker plaats in. Ondertussen groeide het aantal veterinaire studenten, onder wie steeds meer vrouwen.

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.