She saved Jewish people in hiding, refused to work for the Nazis and was way ahead of her time with personnel policy. Yet Lili Bleeker ended up in an unmarked grave, writes columnist Simone van Neerven. This is the extraordinary story of a brilliant physicist who should have received a Nobel Prize.
Unique and contrarian
Caroline Emilie Bleeker was born in Middelburg in 1897. As the youngest of five children and being a girl, her fate was sealed: to stay at home and help with the housework. But Lili, as everyone called her, saw things differently. She turned out to be quite smart and was eager to learn new things. Against her mother’s wishes, Bleeker went to the HBS (a former secondary school in the Netherlands). That is the boys’ HBS because she wanted to study mathematics at the university, and the girls’ HBS didn’t prepare her for that.
After mathematics, she also studied physics and graduated with honours. In 1928, she also completed her PhD with honours and accepted a position at the university. However, some years earlier, in 1924, a new law had come into effect in the Netherlands that prohibited married women under 45 years from working for a government agency, including universities. And so, Bleeker decided not to marry but to live together with her lover, which was exceptional at the time.
After years of struggling with working for a boss, in 1930, she quit and set up her first company: the Physical Consultancy. She collaborated with various laboratories and inspired others to set up what is now TNO (a renowned Dutch research institute).
Her first start-up
The consultancy quickly grew into a small factory, and she got a kick out of making the impossible possible. She worked through the night, quickly developing new products and pivoting when needed. Bleeker expanded her company with an optical department that made lenses, microscopes and binoculars, and her business flourished like never before.
But when the Second World War broke out, she encountered many difficulties. She refused to supply her equipment to the Nazis. Although business wasn’t booming, she kept the factory open because some Jews were in hiding there. When the Nazis invaded the factory in 1944, she was able to hold a conversation with them in fluent German just long enough for all the Jews to escape.
Things were heating up because besides hiding Jews, the illegal Dutch publisher ‘De Bezige Bij’ used her factory for printing pamphlets, and she also supplied binoculars to the Dutch resistance. But above all, at all costs, she wanted to avoid being forced to deliver supplies to the Nazis, so she went into hiding. The factory was closed, but she continued to pay her people.
Getting back into business
After the war, she returned to her factory to see it was looted and destroyed. She started over and got help from her former staff, who almost all had survived the war. With great ingenuity, they get the company running again. Her main competitors in Germany were still at a standstill, and Bleeker seized that opportunity with both hands. The company grew fast, and in 1949, a new, larger factory was officially opened by the Minister of Economic Affairs.
Frits Zernike, a professor of physics famous for his work in optics, and Bleeker worked together to develop a phase contrast microscope before the Second World War. This microscope made it possible to study living cells without killing them first, benefitting the research enormously.
When the war ended, they rekindled their collaboration, and Bleeker successfully translated Zernike’s idea into a well-functioning instrument. It was a groundbreaking innovation for which they jointly held its patent, but only Zernike received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1953.
Forgotten
The company flourished, and Bleeker aimed for a 50-50 female-male staff ratio. She was passionate about science and prioritised this over commercial interests. However, the competition was increasing, and the board of advisors started to comment about this. Furthermore, they did not agree with the way she ran the organisation. Bleeker felt the well-being of her employees was important, and wanted them to have a good time. She provided education, puzzle tours and concerts, among other things. Actually, she was way ahead of her time.
Eventually, she retired at the age of 66. Years later, her life partner dies, and not long after she gets Alzheimer’s. No one around her knows about her incredible life story, and when she dies, she ends up in an unmarked grave.
A true rebella
Bleeker’s reluctance to conform to social norms and expectations was evident from an early age. She dared to stand up for herself and refused positions for which she was overqualified or receiving a lower salary for doing the same work as her male coworkers.
She was visionary and pragmatic at the same time. A real go-getter who created opportunities and seized them wherever and whenever she could. Against all odds and despite the tough setbacks, her business flourished due to her curiosity, creativity and courage. Her moral compass guided her consistently, and she never shied away from making tough but wise decisions.
In short, Bleeker was a true rebella and an inspirational entrepreneur from whom we can still learn a lot today.
This article was originally published in Dutch on MT/Sprout, the most popular business and management platform in the Netherlands.
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