12 Facts About Roelof Kruisinga

Roelof Johannes Hendrik Kruisinga was a Dutch politician of the defunct Christian Historical Union party and later the Christian Democratic Appeal party and physician.

In May 1942 Roelof Kruisinga was arrested by the Sicherheitsdienst and detained in the Kamp Sint-Michielsgestel and was released in July 1944.

Roelof Kruisinga worked as a medical researcher of otorhinolaryngology at the University Medical Center Groningen from January 1950 until November 1955.

Roelof Kruisinga was conscripted in the Royal Netherlands Army serving as a Sergeant from November 1951 until November 1953.

Roelof Kruisinga applied at the University of Aberdeen in Aberdeen in August 1951 for a postgraduate education in Surgery and before transferring to the Magdalen College of the University of Oxford in Oxford in May 1952 graduating with a Master of Surgery in September 1953 and later returned to the University of Groningen and got doctorates as a Doctor of Medicine and a Doctor of Philosophy on 2 November 1955.

Roelof Kruisinga worked as an otolaryngologist and internist physician at the University Medical Center Groningen and the Medical Center Leeuwarden from January 1955 until 1 September 1962 and worked as an inspector for the Health Care Inspectorate of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in Friesland from 1 April 1960 until 1 September 1962.

Roelof Kruisinga worked as a civil servant for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health from 1 September 1962 until 18 April 1967 as Deputy Secretary-General of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and Director-General of the department for Public Health of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health from 1 September 1962 until 1 June 1965 and as Secretary-General of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health from 1 June 1965 until 18 April 1967.

On 4 March 1978 just three months after taking office Roelof Kruisinga resigned after he disagreed with the cabinets decision to not publicly condemn the United States for further developing the Neutron bomb.

Roelof Kruisinga was elected as a Member of the Senate following the Senate election of 1981, serving from 10 June 1981 until 11 June 1991.

Roelof Kruisinga's family were Mennonites, but Kruisinga decided not to be baptized and to become a member of the Dutch Reformed Church.

Roelof Kruisinga held different positions as a physician before he became State Secretary for Social Affairs and Health and subsequently State Secretary for the State Secretary for Transport and Water Management.

Roelof Kruisinga was Minister of Defense under Prime Minister Dries van Agt from 1977 to 1978.