Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema(1917-2007)
- Writer
- Actor
Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema is the son of Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema
and Cornelia Vreede. Born in Java while it was still a Dutch colony.
During the 1930s he hitch-hiked across the United States and wrote his
first book "Rendezvous in San Francisco" which became a non-fiction
best-seller in the Netherlands. A student of law at Leiden University,
when WW11 broke out he escaped from Holland and participated in secret
landings along the Dutch coast. This later became the basis for his
autobiographical book 'Soldaat van Oranje' which was published in
Holland in 1970 by the Forum Boekerij. He later joined the RAF as a
Pathfinder Mosquito pilot, and ended the war by returning to the
Netherlands as an aide to the then-reigning Queen, Wilhelmina. He
emigrated to the United States and in 1951 started working for NBC
Television on the 'Today Show', later on 'Tonight' and 'Home'. He
became Director of Radio Free Europe in Munich. In 1960 he started
Intertel, multi-national television company with mobile units, in
Spain, Germany and the UK. Since 1968 he has devoted his time to
writing books. The first version of 'Soldaat van Oranje was titled 'De
Hol van de Ratelslang'. He wrote a column 'De Verre Tambour' for De
Telegraaf, Hollands' largest newspaper. He now lives in Hawaii.
