Upstanders, whistle-blowers, and rescuers

'My conscience compels me to commemorate here with
deep sadness and bitter disappointment the discharging
from their positions of some of my Dutch colleagues,
solely because of their ancestry or religious beliefs.'
With these words, Utrecht scientist Professor
Victor Koningsberger started his public lecture
on 25 November 1940, thus becoming the first
professor in the Netherlands to publicly stand up
for the Jewish colleagues who were discharged from
the university by the German occupiers.
In their honour, Utrecht University has initiated
the annual Koningsberger Lecture. In this way,
the university wishes to keep alive Koningsberger's
principled act of defiance against the German
occupiers as an example of the possible need for
such acts to permanently guarantee fundamental
rights for present and future generations. At the
centre of this notion is the importance of core
human rights, such as the right to equality regardless
of race or religion, as well as of the constitutional
state and the principles of democracy. Each year the
Koningsberger Lecture is given by someone who
made his or her mark on this field.