The Modern Novel

Biography

Dola de Jong was born Dorothea Rosalie de Jong in Arnhem in 1911. Her family was Jewish. Her mother died when she was five. When young she was interested both in writing and being a ballet dancer. Initially, because her father was opposed to her being a dancer, she became a journalist. She later moved to Amsterdam, where she took up ballet dancing. She toured with the Yvonne Georgi Ballet. At the same time, she was writing for girls’ magazines and a newspaper. She also published children’s books. Her first adult novel was published in 1939.

When collecting for the Committee for Jewish Refugees, she received so much abuse, she decided to leave the Netherlands at once. She initially ended up in Tangiers but then managed to get a visa for herself and her fiancé for the United States. In New York, she managed to continue her writing career, publishing children’s and adult books.She stayed in the United States after the war, though she returned to the Netherlands in the 1970s for seven years, before returning to the United States. She died in 2003.

Other Links

Dola de Jong
Dola de Jong
Dola de Jong’s Novel of Resistance in Love and War
Obituary
Obituary
Dola de Jong (in Dutch)
Dola de Jong (in Dutch)