Before I go into the main story about Adriana Valkenburg, I have to explain something about prostitution in the Netherlands to put this into context. It has always been acceptable in the Netherlands. However, it was only in 1988 that prostitution was considered a legal profession—but in the year 2000, prostitution was legalized by the government.
Adriana (Jeanne)Valkenburg was born in Schiedam on 10 June 1894, the fourth of fourteen children of Jacob Valkenburg and Adriana Cornelia de Ligt. She had a difficult childhood. Her deeply religious father was violent, while her mother neglected to raise the children. She first came into contact with the police in 1911 when she stole a gold ring.
From age eighteen, Jeanne Valkenburg worked as a costume seamstress at the fashion warehouse Gerzon in Rotterdam. She also went to live in that city after she met the wealthy shipbuilder Jan Pot in 1916. As his mistress, she received generous compensation and a roof over her head. Possibly to escape the pressure of Pot’s sexual needs, Valkenburg married the Jewish businessman Jacob Stibbe, whom she had met recently, that same year, 1916. After a few weeks, Stibbe disappeared without a trace, and she never saw him again. Twelve years later, the divorce was granted. Valkenburg stayed with a sister in the east of the country for six months but restored contact with Jan Pot when she settled in a boarding house on Frederiksplein in Amsterdam in 1918. Pot paid the rent, and depending on her services, Valkenburg received an allowance.
In addition to the contract with Pot, Jeanne Valkenburg had a lucrative practice in the 1920s as a prostitute and later guest housekeeper (whore madam) in her own brothels in Amsterdam and The Hague. That career was boosted by the waiter Arnoldus (Nol) van Leersum, with whom Valkenburg had had a relationship since 1919. Because he was living in her pocket, Valkenburg wanted to get rid of him. Attempts to have him convicted of pimping failed due to the legal wrangling and Valkenburg was freed from Van Leersum in 1933—although it cost her the lion’s share of her fortune.
In 1931, Adriana started a relationship with the Jewish businessman Jacob Acohen. First, he was a customer later, as a love affair.
At the end of December 1938, Adriana was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for illegal abortion—a practice which she had started in the mid-1930s in addition to her brothel operation at Noorder Amstellaan 52. After her release in June 1939, she was in financial ruin: she lost Pot’s financial support and her brothels were closed down. Valkenburg rented a room in Van Ostadestraat and had to contact Social Services. Now 45 years old, she maintained herself as a street prostitute for some time.
Shortly after Valkenburg and Acohen got engaged to be married on 17 March 1942, Acohen was arrested by the SD. He was murdered on 29 June 1942 in Mauthausen.
During the war, Valkenburg was an opportunist. In 1942, Adriana helped Jews find a hiding place in her own house on Van Ostadestraat for financial compensation. When she was arrested for this in 1943, she started working as a V-Frau for the occupiers. To avoid persecution, the Jews were brought to the infamous Jewish Affairs Bureau. She reportedly betrayed several dozen people in this way.
Valkenburg moved to Zuider Amstellaan 120 in 1943 because a fellow collaborator had been assassinated by the resistance. When she moved, she met the handyman Joop Bom, with whom she started a relationship and later married. She collaborated with him in betraying Jews.
After Mad Tuesday, 5 September 1944, Valkenburg fled with her partner to Bergen op Zoom, where her sister lived. The couple was arrested there—at the request of her sister on 31 March 1945, and they were taken to Meilust Internment Camp.
In total, Jeanne Valkenburg was estimated to have betrayed fifty Jews, including the relatives of her ex-lover Louis Ritmeester. At least 33 of Valkenburg’s victims died. On 3 July 1947, she was sentenced to death by the Special Court of Justice in Amsterdam, a sentence that was confirmed in 1949 by the Special Court of Cassation. Yet she was pardoned. That same year, the sentence was commuted to life in prison. Ten years later, in 1959, the detention period was shortened to 22 years, after which Valkenburg was released in January 1960. In total, she had been imprisoned for almost fifteen years.
During her detention, Jeanne the Liar kept her reputation alive. She caused a lot of mischief in the air yard and in the sewing room of the Noordsingel penitentiary in Rotterdam by recruiting and inciting newcomers, according to a social work report in 1958. In her last years, Valkenburg led a secluded life at various addresses in Amsterdam and the border village of Putte (N.Br.). She no longer had contact with family except her half-brother, Jules de Ligt, who took care of her. In the 1960s, she ended up in a wheelchair because she became obese. Ultimately, Valkenburg, weighing over a hundred kilos, was admitted to the Algemeen Burger Gasthuis (Guesthouse) in Bergen op Zoom, where she died on 19 February 1968.
Sources
https://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/Valkenburg
https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/tijdlijn/Adriana-Valkenburg/03/0004
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