Aletta Jacobs - advocate of the emancipation of women - died 82 years ago on 14 August 1929. She was cremated at Westerveld, which was the only place in the Netherlands where cremations were possible at that time. Due to the ravages of time, the monument of 'Holland's best known feminist' is up for restoration. For that reason, Aletta (Institute for Women's History) started a collection to restore it. Thanks to the support of a large number of people and organisations - such as Westerveld Cemetery & Crematorium - they have now collected enough money to be able to start renovating this monument. The project is scheduled to be completed this autumn.
First woman
Aletta Jacobs was the first woman in the Netherlands to attend a secondary modern school, the first woman to attend a university and the first woman to become a physician and take a doctoral degree. For a quarter of a century, she was at the head of the Female Suffragette Association in the Netherlands. Watch the moving images of Aletta Jacobs' cremation in 1929
Monument
Aletta Jacobs' monument, where her husband Carel Victor Gerritsen was also buried, was designed by the artist Gra Rueb. She created the monument of the two bronze urns against the wall of Dudok's Columbarium II. In the ceramic section, an owl (symbol of wisdom) was added in relief above Gerritsen, and the staff of Aesculapius (the sign for medicine and healing) above Jacobs. The bronze relief depicts a man and a woman, both kneeling down on the globe and holding a burning torch.
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