Willy Kruyt

Willy Kruyt ( John William Kruyt; 8 September 1877 – July 1943) was a Dutch Protestant minister and Christian socialist, later Communist, politician.

Background The son of a Dutch publisher and his Scottish wife, Kruyt studied theology at Utrecht and joined the League of Christian Socialists in 1910.

Later career Following his first wife's death, Kruyt emigrated to Berlin where he joined Workers International Relief, then to Moscow in 1935 (presumably fleeing from the Nazis) to work at the Lenin State Library. Dissatisfied with Stalinism, and deported to Tashkent, he trained as a spy in the hopes of getting back to the Netherlands this way. From England, he parachuted into Belgium in June 1942 with the help of SOE. He broke his leg and was arrested by the German occupiers who detained him at Fort Breendonk.

Death Kruyt was tortured and deported to the Moabit prison in Berlin where he is thought to have been executed by firing squad in July 1943.

Family He married Catharina Truus Hogerzeil in 1901 and they had four children; after her death, he married Nelly Dentz and they had two children before their marriage was annulled and he married Gustel Schmidt.