Albert Helman

Lodewijk 'Lou' Lichtveld (7 November 1903 – 10 July 1996) was a Surinamese politician, playwright, poet and resistance fighter who wrote under the pseudonym "Albert Helman".

He gained notability in 1923 when he published the poetry collection De glorende dag (The Dawning Day), a milestone in immigrant literature in the Netherlands. He followed it three years later with Zuid-Zuid-West (South-South-West).

In 1940, before the invasion of the Netherlands, he wrote the book Millioenen-leed ("Millions of Suffering") about the treatment of the Jews in Nazi Germany. This novel describes his memories of his country of birth and the exploitation of Suriname by the Dutch colonizer, and ended with a fierce anti-colonial epilogue. Many more novels, essays and poems followed.

He also worked as a playwright and as a translator of foreign literature into Dutch. His musical works were shown in the silent film Rain (1929) by Joris Ivens, which appeared in 1932 as a sound version with a score composed by Helman film music. In 1931, he published a play based on the third voyage of Willem Barentsz.

Spain In 1932, Lichtveld moved to Spain. Here he fought on the side of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists under General Francisco Franco.

After the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, Lichtveld went into hiding, because he could no longer appear in public as a known anti-fascist. In addition, he became a member of the Grote Raad van de Illegaliteit ("Great Council of Illegality") whose mission it was to advice the Dutch government-in-exile in London.

After the war he was appointed as one of the members of the Emergency Parliament which was established to govern the Netherlands in preparation of free elections.

Public Offices

In 1949, Lichtveld returned to his native Suriname, where he was the Minister of Education and National Development and Minister of Health until 1951. After his resignation as Minister, he still held various other offices. He was chairman of the Court of Audit of Suriname and director of the office folk reading. In 1961, he was appointed to the Dutch Embassy in Washington, D.C. Here, he was part of the delegation of the Kingdom to the United Nations, which was specifically concerned with the perception of Surinamese interests.

After retiring, he settled on Tobago, later in Airole and finally in Amsterdam, where he died at the age of 92 years.