Rudolph Cleveringa

Rudolph Pabus Cleveringa
Cleveringa (bust by Eja Siepman van den Berg)
Born	(1894-04-02)2 April 1894 Appingedam
Died	15 December 1980(1980-12-15) (aged 86) Oegstgeest
Nationality	Dutch
Alma mater	Leiden University
Scientific career
Fields	law

Rudolph Pabus Cleveringa (2 April 1894, Appingedam, Netherlands – 15 December 1980, Oegstgeest, Netherlands) was a professor of law at Leiden University. He is known for his speech of 26 November 1940, in which he protested against the dismissal of Jewish colleagues ordered by the German occupation authorities.

Cleveringa was born in Appingedam. When he was four, his family moved to Heerenveen. Cleveringa received his secondary education in Leeuwarden, and studied with van Kleffens at Leiden University. In June 1917 he completed his doctoral studies and in 1919 he obtained his PhD cum laude. His thesis, emphasizing legal history aspects, was titled De zakelijke werking van de ontbindende voorwaarde ("The in rem effect of the escape clause").

After a brief stint at the court of Alkmaar in 1927 he was appointed Professor of Commercial Law and Civil Law at Leiden University. Here, on November 26, 1940, he delivered his famous speech in which he protested against the resignation, forced by the German occupation authorities, of his mentor, promotor and colleague Professor Eduard Maurits Meijers, and other Jewish professors.

That same evening a group of students, led by André Koch of The Hague, made copies of the speech and disseminated them to other universities. Cleveringa was arrested and imprisoned in the summer of 1941 in the prison of Scheveningen, used for members of the Dutch resistance and nicknamed the "Orange Hotel". The Leiden students decided to strike and then the University was closed. In 1944 Cleveringa was imprisoned in Camp Vught. There he joined the College van Vertrouwensmannen ("College of Trusted Men") that coordinated the Dutch resistance.