April 13 marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the death of Dutch socialist revolutionary Henk Sneevliet, whom the Nazis murdered alongside seven of his comrades. Sneevliet had served as leader of the Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg Front, an underground organization founded immediately after the German invasion in May 1940. By then, Sneevliet was already a prominent socialist; before the war, he traveled all over the world, supporting small communist parties and building solidarity.

Born in 1883 to a poor family in Rotterdam, Sneevliet was raised by his grandmother and aunts after his mother’s death in 1886. He excelled in school, and his family’s relationships found him enough financial support to pursue secondary education. He later recalled feeling out of place among his wealthier schoolmates. There was no way he could continue studying after graduating — something he would look back on with regret — so, at seventeen, Sneevliet began working for a major railway company.

Witnessing his community’s poverty and experiencing class difference firsthand made Sneevliet aware of social issues at a young age. He must also have followed the late nineteenth century’s strike wave. In 1902, Sneevliet joined the Dutch Social Democratic Workers Party (SDAP).