|
Jacques Levi Lassen’s life began in Bergen, Germany, on February 25, 1884: he was born to Moses Levi and Fanny Hahn, who named him Jacob. He had two older brothers, who both left home and Germany at a very early age, and an older sister, Pauline. Jacob graduated from high-school (the "Realschule der israelitischen Gemeinde" in Frankfurt-am-Main) in 1899. Following his father’s death in that same year, young Jacob found himself in charge of providing for his mother and his unmarried sister - at 15 years of age! He joined Siegmund Strauss Jr., a Frankfurt-based wholesale company that dealt in textiles and had branches in several western European countries as well as in Germany. In 1904 Jacob was sent to the Netherlands, where he was appointed manager of a newly opened Siegmund Strauss store in the city of The Hague. Before long it became clear he had a flair for trade... |
A highly talented business man
In 1911 Jacob Levi decided to branch out on his own and set up shop in The Hague’s Zoutmanstraat. This business soon took off, especially when he switched to importing rough shantung fabrics from China - bringing them in via England where they were first dyed and printed. Voiles from England followed, as did silks from France. In 1917, Levi decided to go into partnership with a ladies’ fashion store in The Hague, the Maison de Nouveautés. Other such initiatives followed, each of which became a building stone that contributed to the establishment of a large business concern. Take for instance the evolution of “NV Textiel Import- en Export Maatschappij,” a public limited company Levi created in 1919: changing names more than once, this business continued to develop throughout the nineteen twenties and thirties, and nowadays it is an important finance corporation with two subsidiaries named Maison de Nouveautés NV and Siegmund Strauss NV (or Sistra BV, its current name).
Following World War I, Jacob Levi chose to settle permanently in The Hague and be naturalized: his applications were successful and he was granted citizenship of the Netherlands in 1920. Furthermore, in 1923, he was authorized by Royal Decree to carry the name Lassen: Jacob Levi thus became Jacques Levi Lassen. His mother and sister Pauline left Germany and came to set up home with him in the villa he bought on the Stadhouderslaan in 1926, where Fanny lived until her death in 1929.
Business thrived. In 1933 Siegmund Strauss NV acquired a plot of land in down-town The Hague, on the corner of Grote Markstraat and Spui, and launched the construction of a large office block, with street-level stores. Jacques Levi Lassen ordered the building to be equipped with an underground air-raid shelter, an initiative which earned him a royal decoration: on August 23, 1939 he was knighted “Companion in the Order of Orange Nassau.” Up until the onset of World War II, the J.L. Lassen concern continued to invest in real estate, notably purchasing a number of properties in the area behind his office building, along the streets that constituted The Hague’s oldest Jewish neighborhood.
Wartime exile and return to the Netherlands
As the risk of war increased, Jacques Levi Lassen’s friends and employees urged him to leave the Netherlands. Initially reluctant, he finally requested and obtained visas for himself and Pauline, and they left for Paris on that same day, in April 1940, cutting things fine as it turned out, since the Germans invaded the Netherlands on May 10th of that year! From Paris, Jacques and Pauline found their way first to Portugal, and then across the ocean, to the USA. They reached New York in October 1940, where they remained for the duration of the war.
Meanwhile, the managing staff of Jacques’ enterprises in the Netherlands struggled valiantly to protect his companies. They were successful in that, despite the physical destruction of a number of properties, the Levi Lassen concern was saved from being liquidated by the Nazis. On his return to the Netherlands in 1946, J.L. Lassen was able to resume leadership over his company.
On his return Jacques once again took up residence in The Hague, albeit in a hotel, no longer in a home of his own.
The old Jewish shopping area
The sight of the Jewish quarter’s empty shops and streets - the immediate consequence of the Nazis’ heinous persecution, deportation, and annihilation of the city’s Jewish population - filled him with immense pain and sadness. Moved by the desire to honor the memory of the neighborhood’s vanished inhabitants, he resumed buying pieces of real estate all along the Gedempte Gracht, longing to recreate a shopping street on the location of the quarter’s once vibrant commercial heart.
It is indeed with true passion that Jacques Levi Lassen dedicated the last 16 years of his life to furthering the redevelopment of this area, which comprises the streets Spui-Gedempte Gracht-Voldersgracht-Bezemstraat and forms the subject matter of I.B. van Creveld’s book entitled De Verdwenen Buurt (“The lost neighborhood”). In pursuing this goal, J.L. Lassen also proved to be most insightful. He clearly perceived the potential of this area which borders The Hague’s commercial city center, and is currently at the heart of yet another large-scale urban renewal project.
Jacques Levi Lassen’s inheritance: the Foundation
On June 24, 1957 J.L. Lassen established Stichting Levi Lassen-the Levi Lassen Foundation, of which he was the sole director until the time of his death and to which he bequeathed his full inheritance, including all shares in his company. His loyal adviser and close assistant in this enterprise was Karel van Rijckevorsel, a lawyer and member of the Dutch Parliament’s Lower House, whom he subsequently appointed Secretary of the Foundation. Together, the two men developed Jacques Levi Lassen’s ideas to revamp the old city area surrounding Gedempte Gracht, the former Jewish quarter.
| Jacques Levi Lassen died in his beloved city of The Hague, on March 5, 1962, at the age of 78. He was buried in the old Jewish cemetery located not far from the Peace Palace, on Scheveningseweg. Five years later, on 12 October 1967, a special wish of Jacques Levi Lassen was fulfilled when, as part of the inauguration ceremony of the new Levi Lassen building on Gedempte Gracht, the mayor of The Hague unveiled a sculpture designed by Dick Stins. This monument, inscribed with the words “Remember what Amalek did to you…… do not forget”, constitutes a memorial in honor of the inhabitants of the former Jewish neighborhood of The Hague and, with them, all those who suffered deportation and perished during the Second World War. It was placed in storage for safekeeping while the area was being renovated. The Levi Lassen memorial was replaced on December 11th 2007 on the new C&A building (Gedempte Gracht), thus consolidating an important link between past and future. Jacques Levi Lassen lives on through the Levi Lassen foundation he created, which continues to pursue and realize his ideals. |
Jacob Levi himself lives on through the Levi Lassen foundation, which continues to realize its objects using the return on its capital, which is mainly invested both directly and indirectly in real estate. It does so by providing funding to organizations serving the common good and in
particular organizations promoting the interests of the Jewish community in the Netherlands and elsewhere.
Further developments
After the death of Mr Lassen his successors developed the highly successful Martkhof shopping arcade at Gedempte Gracht in The Hague.
The ladies' fashions activities were subsequently discontinued, while the real estate activities were further extended. In 1972 the foundation acquired Parkhotel De Zalm in the Molenstraat, The Hague. This hotel was then fully renovated to become the present 120-room, four-star Parkhotel Den Haag.
These commercial activities have resulted in a further growth of the capital of holding company J.L. Lassen B.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stichting Levi Lassen. This, too, helped Stichting Levi Lassen to realize its statutory objects with increasing effectiveness.
List of Board members:
1. I. Zadoks, chairman from 1962 to 1978
2. K.T.M. van Rijckevorsel, secretary from 1962 to 1978
3. S. Barnstijn, from 1962 to 1985, chairman from 1978 to 1985
4. M. Drielsma, from 1976 to 1981
5. Th.W.M. Lippmann, secretary from 1978 to 2008 (†)
6. I.F. Leijdesdorff, from 1982 to 1994, chairman from 1985 to 1994
7. H. Wagenfeld, from 1985 to 2006, chairman from 1994 to 2006
8. A. Troostwijk, since 1994, chairman since 2006
9. A.F. Kan, since 2006.
