Pieter Dietz de Loos/Sohn von Dirk de Loos

Dirk de Loos was born on February 13, 1917, in the Dutch East Indies and later grew up in the Netherlands. After the German occupation of the Netherlands, he helped publish an underground resistance newspaper in Leiden. Beginning in 1941, Dirk assisted Allied and Dutch agents in escaping to England, gathered intelligence on German troops, and participated in acts of sabotage.
In early 1942, he was denounced by local policemen in Rotterdam and arrested. After being held in several prisons, he and 100 others were brought before a court in Haaren. Twenty were sentenced to death; the rest, including Dirk, were classified as “Night and Fog” prisoners. On October 26, 1943, he was deported to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. After its closure in September 1944, Dirk was transferred to Dachau, where he was liberated on April 29, 1945.
After the war, he completed his studies and married a fellow resistance fighter. Dirk was a co-founder of the Dutch association of former Natzweiler prisoners. He died on July 19, 1990.
His son, Pieter Dietz de Loos, was born in 1950 in the Netherlands. After completing his law degree at Leiden University in 1976, he first worked for an international bank before co-founding the law firm “De Loos & Schrijver Advocaten” in 1985. Alongside his successful legal career, Pieter served as president of the International Dachau Committee (CID) and founded “Wings of Hope,” an organization providing support to war victims suffering from trauma, which he led for 15 years.
For many years, Pieter has spoken about his father’s story and that of Dachau survivors. He has also long been connected to the initiative “!Nie Wieder. Memorial Day in German Football.”