Leo Polak (1880–1941)

Leo Polak was born to a Jewish family in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His parents were Salomon and Sonja Polak, and his brothers were
Eric Salomon Polak and Adri Philip Polak. After completing gymnasium (high school) in Zwolle in 1898, he studied law at the University of Amsterdam, earning a master's degree cum laude in 1903 and and receiving his doctorate in 1921. From 1912, he was a private lecturer in epistemology, later also in metaphysics and ethics. He also taught at the Nederlandsche Handels-Hoogeschool in Rotterdam and courses at various folk universities.
In 1917, he married Henriette Antoinette Schwarz, with whom he had three daughters. In 1925, he was appointed professor of philosophy and law at the University of Leiden; three years later, he became full professor of philosophy at the University of Groningen. After 1910, he contributed articles to the journal of the free thinkers' association De Dageraad (Daybreak). He also gave radio lectures on various subjects for the Vrijdenkers Radio Omroepvereeniging (VRO). He served as chairman of the Dutch Atheists Association. After Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in World War II, Prof. Polak was suspended from his university position. According to his diary, in December 1940, he was offered a job at the New School for Social Research in New York City, but turned it down. In February 1941, he was arrested, and after a stay in the prisons of Groningen and Leeuwarden, he was deported to the Nazi concentration camp at Sachsenhausen in May 1941. He died in Sachsenhausen in December 1941 as a result of injuries from forced labor.
His second daughter Henriëtte took part in the Dutch Resistance. She also was arrested in 1941 and deported first to Ravensbrück and then to Auschwitz, where she died in 1942. Mrs. Henriette Polak and her two other daughters, Bettina and Annie, spent time in Dutch camps, went into hiding, and survived. Mrs. Polak became a famous patron of the arts and philanthropist after the war.

In 1972, she founded the Leo Polak House in Amsterdam-Osdorp in honor of her husband.
Since 2004, the Leo Polak Foundation, affiliated with the University of Utrecht, has awarded an annual Leo Polak Prize for a master's or doctoral thesis. There is also a Leo Polak Freethinkers Chair at the University of Groningen.