Jacques van Tol

Jacques van Tol was a very prolific songwriter. Usually he sold all rights, so the person creating the song could pass it off as his own. Van Tol was the main lyricist for the Jewish actor and cabaret player Louis Davids. Before the Second World War van Tol already sympathised with the Dutch Nazi Party, the NSB. In the movie 'Op Stap' (1935), Louis Davids, playing a composer, is singing the song (written by van Tol) 'If you are born with the value of a dime, you never become a quarter' (Dutch: Als je voor een dubbeltje geboren bent, bereik je nooit een kwartje). It is sad to see Louis and Henriette Davids sing this van Tol song. Louis Davids died in 1939, Henriette survived the holocaust in hiding, van Tol became during the war, using the alias 'Paulus de Ruiter' the principal writer for the infamous nazi-oriented 'Paulus de Ruiter-cabaret' on Dutch radio. He even rewrote his song 'The little man', originally sung by Louis Davids, with new fully antisemitic lyrics. After the war he was arrested and sentenced to prison for a few years, because of his cooperation with the Nazis. After his release he started writing songs again, never using his own name. Many singers didn't have any objection using lyrics of a writer, who was 'wrong' during the Second World War. Van Tol even wrote the farewell song for Henriette Davids, using the alias Pinkhof (Pinkhof was the surname of H. Davids' husband). Though he had been writing songs for more than 50 years, van Tol never became famous. When he was writing about 'being born for a dime', he must have realised he was describing his own life.