Benjamin Telders, Netherlands (1903-1945)
Benjamin Telders was born in The Hague in 1903. In 1921 he went to the University of Leiden to study law, he then went on to become a professor of law at the same university in 1936.
Telders was a faithful follower of Hegel, attending the first Hegel congress in The Hague in 1930. Telders wrote many articles in popular magazines and newspapers during his short life, in which he explained certain international law problems in a way that they were comprehensible to the layman. His reputation as an outstanding jurist bought him many honours including the opportunity to plead before the Permanent Court of International Justice for the Netherlands.
As a politician Telders was elected as the chairman of the Liberal Party in 1938. Under his chairmanship he oversaw the revival of Liberalism in the Netherlands. The first signs of which were in the April 1939 election.
Telders was very critical of traitors during the German occupation of the Netherlands and due to his outspokenness he was arrested and sent to several concentration camps.
He died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen, nine days before the camp was liberated.