Louis Johan Alexander Schoonheyt (1903-1986), commonly known as L. J. A. Schoonheyt, was a Dutch medical doctor, writer, and supporter of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands before World War II. From 1935 to 1936 he was the camp doctor at the Boven-Digoel concentration camp in New Guinea, Dutch East Indies, and is mostly known today for the book he wrote about his experiences there, Boven-Digoel: Het land van communisten en kannibalen (1936).[1][2][3] His praise for the conditions in the camp earned him the ire of the internees, Indonesian nationalists, and Dutch human rights advocates; E. du Perron called him a 'colonial bandit', while many internees burned his book after reading it in the camp.[3][4]
During World War II he was imprisoned by the Dutch in Jodensavanne internment camp in Surinam because of his perceived sympathies for Nazi Germany. After the war ended he petitioned the government to be rehabilitated, which was granted in 1949.
- ^ Mrázek, Rudolf (2020). The complete lives of camp people: colonialism, fascism, concentrated modernity. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 47. ISBN 9781478007364.
- ^ Gouda, Frances; Zaalberg, Thijs Brocades (2002). "American Visions of Colonial Indonesia from the Great Depression to the Growing Fear of Japan, 1930-1938". American Visions of the Netherlands East Indies/Indonesia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-90-5356-479-0. JSTOR j.ctt45kf5g.10.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
Mrazek 2013was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ du Perron, E. (1959). Verzameld werk. Deel 7 (in Dutch). Amsterdam: G.A. van Oorschot. pp. 309–13.