{{Short description|Dutch historian (1914–2005)}} thumb|Loe de Jong (1966)'''Louis "Loe" de Jong''' (24 April 1914 in Amsterdam – 15 March 2005 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch historian who specialised in the Netherlands in World War II and the Dutch resistance.
De Jong studied history and social geography at the University of Amsterdam. He worked as a foreign newspaper correspondent from 1938 until 1940. He wrote on 31 August 1939 that an invasion of Poland would not escalate into war: "The Second World War has been averted for a long time [for the immediate future], probably for years", was printed on 2 September. He wrote on 6 April 1940 that there was no indication whatsoever that "Berlin thought of expanding the war [into other countries]".<ref>Rob Hartmans, "Uiteraard schaamde Loe de Jong zich", Groene Amsterdammer, 35 (27 Aug 2014).</ref> After the German invasion of the Netherlands, De Jong managed to escape to London with his wife Liesbeth Cost Budde on 15 May 1940 on board of the ''Friso''. He would work for Radio Oranje, broadcasting to the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.. [[File:Media Network - A Voice from Across the Water.ogg|thumb|Interview with Loe de Jong for Dutch Radio Oranje]] The magnum opus of Loe de Jong, ''The Kingdom of the Netherlands During World War II'' (Dutch: ''Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog''), in fourteen volumes and 18,000 pages, is the standard reference on the history of the Netherlands during World War II. The Dutch Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) made an electronic edition of the entire work available for downloading from 11 December 2011, licensed under creative commons CC BY 3.0.<ref name=Kingdom>{{cite web | url= https://www.niod.nl/nl/publicaties/het-koninkrijk-der-nederlanden-in-de-tweede-wereldoorlog |title= The Kingdom of the Netherlands During World War II |author= Loe de Jong |date= 1969–1991 |publisher= NIOD |access-date= 7 January 2024}}</ref>
De Jong contributed to many other historical works on the Netherlands and lectured at symposia on the European resistance. In 1988, he was awarded the Gouden Ganzenveer for his contributions to Dutch written and printed culture.<ref>{{cite web |title= Laureaten De Gouden Ganzenveer vanaf 1955 |publisher= Stichting De Gouden Ganzenveer |year= 2009 |url= http://www.goudenganzenveer.nl/laureaten.html |access-date= 2009-07-28 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090225223755/http://www.goudenganzenveer.nl/laureaten.html |archive-date= 2009-02-25 }}</ref> In 1963 he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref>{{cite web |author= |url= http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00001127 |title= Louis de Jong (1914 - 2005) |publisher= Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |date= |access-date= 28 July 2015}}</ref>
Loe de Jong was Jewish by birth. He lost the greater part of his family including his parents and his twin brother during the Second World War.
== See also == * ''The Silent Historian'' - a film about Loe de Jong * Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac (1917–2015), a French historian with a similar profile
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book |last1=Smits |first1=Boudewijn |title=Loe de Jong 1914-2005: historicus met een missie |year=2014 |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Boom |isbn=9789461054678}}
==External links== {{commons category}} *[http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/bamboozling-ourselves-part-6/ Errol Morris writes on Loue de Jong in the New York Times, June 3, 2009]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jong, Loe De}} Category:1914 births Category:2005 deaths Category:20th-century Dutch historians Category:Dutch people of World War II Category:Dutch Jews Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Writers from Amsterdam Category:Dutch media executives Category:Historians of the Holocaust Category:Historians of World War II Category:20th-century Dutch journalists Category:Burials at Zorgvlied Cemetery