Louis Fles

Levie Jacob Louis Fles was a Dutch businessman, activist and author. He is best known for writing and broadcasting against Zionism, Nazism, and organized religion. A selfdescribed freethinker, Fles was a vocal supporter of Humanism and Jewish assimilation. His relationship with the Dutch Social Democratic Workers Party was more problematic. While he generally supported the ideals of socialism, he wrote extensively about his disagreements with the party as well. After a life filled with personal tragedy and devotion to political and social activism, Fles committed suicide in May 1940 only a few weeks after the German occupation of the Netherlands.

Louis Fles was born in Maassluis, Netherlands on October 19, 1871 to Jewish parents. His father, Jacob Levie Fles, worked as a diamond cutter, and his mother, Saartje van Blijdestein, ran a hosiery shop, placing young Louis squarely in the newly expanding merchant class. After his father died in 1873 his mother married a man named Swaab. Upon his mothers death in 1878, Louis was taken in and raised by his stepfathers family. As a successful business owner himself, Swaab took the young Louis into his company shortly after the boy had completed primary school.

Source: Wikipedia