Cornelis van Geelkerken

Cornelis "Kees" van Geelkerken (Dutch pronunciation: [kɔrˈneːləs fɑŋ ˈɣeːlkɛrkə(n)][1] 19 March 1901 – 29 March 1976) was a Dutch fascist political leader and Nazi collaborator.

Cornelis van Geelkerken
Cornelis van Geelkerken in uniform
Inspector General of the Nederlandse Landwacht
In office 12 November 1943 – 1945
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Leader of the Nationale Jeugdstorm
In office 1 May 1934 – 1945
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Personal details
Born	Cornelis van Geelkerken (1901-03-19)19 March 1901 Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Belgium
Died	29 March 1976(1976-03-29) (aged 75) Ede, Netherlands
Political party	National Socialist Movement (1931–1945)
Other political affiliations	Nederlandsche Oranje-Nationalisten Verbond van Actualisten
Spouse	Johanna Dorothea Eschauzier ​ ​ (m. 1927)​

Van Geelkerken was born in 1901 to a Dutch family in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Belgium, and grew up in Utrecht. He gravitated toward fascism in the 1920s while working as a municipal employee in Zeist and Utrecht. Van Geelkerken co-founded the far-right National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) with Anton Mussert in 1931. He was made the leader of the Nationale Jeugdstorm, the party's youth corps.

In 1943, during the German occupation of the Netherlands, Van Geelkerken was appointed Inspector-General of the Nederlandse Landwacht, a collaborationist paramilitary created by the Germans to combat the Dutch resistance. He was expelled from the NSB in early 1945 after a falling out with Mussert. After the war, he was tried in the Bijzonder Gerechtshof ("Special Court of Justice") and sentenced to life imprisonment, but was later released in 1959. He died in 1976 in Ede.