Upstanders, Whistle-Blowers, and Rescuers

'My conscience compels me to commemorate here withdeep sadness and bitter disappointment the dischargingfrom their positions of some of my Dutch colleagues,solely because of their ancestry or religious beliefs.'With these words, Utrecht scientist ProfessorVictor Koningsberger started his public lectureon 25 November 1940, thus becoming the firstprofessor in the Netherlands to publicly stand upfor the Jewish colleagues who were discharged fromthe university by the German occupiers.In their honour, Utrecht University has initiatedthe annual Koningsberger Lecture. In this way,the university wishes to keep alive Koningsberger'sprincipled act of defiance against the Germanoccupiers as an example of the possible need forsuch acts to permanently guarantee fundamentalrights for present and future generations. At thecentre of this notion is the importance of corehuman rights, such as the right to equality regardlessof race or religion, as well as of the constitutionalstate and the principles of democracy. Each year theKoningsberger Lecture is given by someone whomade his or her mark on this field.