Dutch WWII Hero Roelfzema Dies at 90

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Dutch WWII Hero Roelfzema Dies at 90

Published: 9/29/07, 6:25 AM EDT
By TOBY STERLING

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - The Dutch World War II resistance hero, Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema - better known as the "Soldier of Orange" - died this week at his home in Hawaii, his family said in a death notice published in a Dutch newspaper. He was 90.
Roelfzema was a student at the University of Leiden when the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, and he later went underground and fled to England, where he carried out numerous missions in the service of the Dutch royal house in exile.
The notice in De Telegraaf, the nation's largest daily, did not specify the cause of death, but said Roelfzema died in his sleep Wednesday. He will be cremated and an urn with his ashes will be returned to the Netherlands "at a date to be determined later," it said.
Roelfzema's wartime activities included delivering radio equipment by boat to the Dutch coast and collecting resistance fighters to return to England. He later became a pilot, carrying out 72 target-marking missions in bombing raids against Germany as a member of Britain's Royal Air Force.
Roelfzema was born in Indonesia in 1917, then a Dutch colony. After the war, he immigrated to the United States, where he worked for various media, including NBC, and in 1955, he returned to Europe to work as a producer for Radio Free Europe.
His fame in the Netherlands leaped after he published his book, "Soldaat van Oranje" (Soldier of Orange) in 1971. He became known outside the country after the book was made into a film of the same name by director Paul Verhoeven in 1977, starring Rutger Hauer in the title role.
Roelfzema took a job with energy company Barnwell Industries Inc. in the 1970s, and later convinced the company to move to Hawaii, where it became a major gas and oil developer.
In an interview with De Telegraaf in July, Roelfzema said he knew that he had received a disproportionate amount of recognition for his wartime exploits.
He bears a Distinguished Flying Cross from Britain and the Military Order of William in the Netherlands, the country's highest honor, which bestows knighthood for bravery in battle.
"I became a war hero because I stuck out, because I wrote about my experiences. But behind every soldier decorated with military honors there are a hundred anonymous heroes, some of them greater," he said. "I had the fortune to be recognized, and to grow old."
He is survived by his wife, Karin; son, Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema Jr.; daughter, Karna Hazelhoff-Castellon; a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter.



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