‘Man can survive a nuclear war, so there is hope’

With happy eyes and sometimes laughing out loud, Johannes van der Harst gives an insight into his long life, which lasted 100 years on Monday. He also finds that very long. He was very active in society for a large part of his life. He thought his job at Shell was only an afterthought. As a member of the consistory of the Reformed Church, for example, he committed himself to bringing together the Reformed and the Reformed, and later also with Muslims and Buddhists. In the 1980s he fought as a peace activist against the deployment of nuclear weapons in the Netherlands, and had himself tied to a fence during a protest against apartheid in South Africa. After the fall of the Wall, Van der Harst traveled through Eastern Europe to forge ties with residents and cities. His eldest son calls him a ‘peace apostle’.

In the bright and spacious apartment in a nursing home in The Hague, wherever you are, books about philosophy and history are within reach. On the wall hangs a portrait of the theologian and philosopher Erasmus. The beautiful antique music stand with works by Bach on it, reminds of his deceased wife, who was a violinist.

How did you manage to turn 100?

‘Live on in peace, don’t go to extremes and don’t get too attached. If you say, ‘I can’t live without my wife, if she dies, I’ll fall into a deep hole’, you’re doing it wrong. You shouldn’t have that. My wife passed away two years ago and it may sound unkind, but I’ve had a good time ever since.

“My wife was physically strong, but in recent years her mind had run out. She was very musical and played the violin. My name did not appear once in the life stories of speakers at her funeral. It was only about music.’ (laughing laugh). ‘I didn’t care, I’m just a sober person. And although I am sober, I have not completely thrown away religion. There is something that transcends man. Our ancestors gave meaning to that and we don’t have to let that go, because then you have nothing left.’

How did you manage to be married for over 60 years without being too attached to your wife?

‘By keeping a little distance. And go my own way. It’s a matter of character, I guess.’

He drinks his tea, and remains lost in thought for a moment. The hot drink brings back a memory. “My mother was vehemently against divorce. She herself had become a widow at a young age – with two small children, I was 2 years old – and has always remained so. Her brother Piet was married to aunt Jaantje, but fell in love with Els, daughter of the Jansen family, a large tea exporter with tea plantations in Indonesia. I thought Els was a nice woman, because when I interrupted my physics studies in 1943 and decided to go into hiding with family in Ommen to escape the Arbeidseinsatz, she arranged extra food stamps for me so that I had enough to eat. Uncle Piet, to my mother’s reluctance, divorced Jaantje and married Els. As a man you think: the blood crawls where it can’t go.’

What do you miss most about what you can no longer do?

‘Cycling, swimming and tennis, and the fun that came with it. I miss all the contacts of the clubs I was a member of, such as the tennis club and the philosophy club. They are all dead. Only Jos, the youngest member of our philosophy club, is still alive. He comes to visit once every three weeks and takes the physics journals I subscribe to. You should look for contacts at this age with young people. Luckily I have two lovely sons who visit often.

‘Life is more difficult because of what I can no longer do. Moving is difficult, I can no longer walk. It takes me five minutes to get to the dining table in my wheelchair. Slowly my life may come to an end. I’ll be ready.’

What does your average day look like?

‘I am very busy. I have the habit of having breakfast. And that breakfast comes later and later, then the coffee comes and when I’ve finished it, it’s already lunch time. In the afternoon I will rest. After dinner at 5 pm I watch the news and then my free time begins. I spend it reading, often until 1 am. Now I’m reading that thick, intricate book that’s on the table next to you: The inventor of nature, the adventurous life of Alexander von Humboldt† A very special man, who on his travels to South America, among other places, described exactly the nature he saw. He was the first to notice the great unity in nature, that everything is connected. He was an intelligent man. He could remember everything he read. His sister-in-law said that would drive him crazy, but that didn’t happen.

‘So I read a lot. I have a subscription to FidelityBut I read the newspaper less and less. All the news is similar. Only Putin provided some variation, but those messages are also starting to resemble each other more and more.’

How do you see the war in Ukraine?

“There is something very strange about the Russians. They must necessarily do everything differently from the West. They feel disadvantaged and want to prove themselves as a superpower. Those in power think they are the only ones who are right and that we in the West are crazy. Countries that lie between Russia and the NATO countries, such as Ukraine, are in a difficult position. Western Europe is not intervening now, for fear that Russia will attack us too.’

Is that fear justified?

‘Yes, I think so. Putin hopes that the West will intervene, because then he can say: they are attacking us. The West should not be tempted to do that, because we have a Third World War. That is dangerous because there is a risk that Russia will use nuclear weapons.

‘I studied physics and during that study I already learned how dangerous radioactivity is for life on earth. But today I made a discovery. The thing is, we are now learning to live with radioactivity. That is the next step in the development of humanity. It will be another ten thousand years before it is possible, but the start is there. So I don’t believe that nuclear war will end life on Earth. If it comes to the point where nuclear weapons are used, then there is still hope for people.’

How did you discover that today?

‘Suddenly that thought came to my mind. That is the creativity of my thinking. The fact that plants are growing again in the contaminated environment of Chernobyl proves that nature is learning to live with that radioactive radiation. After a nuclear disaster, it is no longer just a dull misery. Nature appears to be stronger than radioactivity.’

What drove you to become active in the peace movement during the Cold War?

“Even then there was a real threat of nuclear war between Russia and America. As a physicist I was well aware of the danger of radioactive radiation. The Interdenominational Peace Council (IKV) was established to fight against war and nuclear weapons. I thought: I have to be there. I went to meet and demonstrate in Amsterdam and The Hague against the placement of 48 nuclear weapons in the Netherlands. I became chairman of the Hague branch of the IKV. When the government did not give up after those massive demonstrations, we launched a signature campaign, with postcards delivered door-to-door. We collected 3.75 million signatures.’

He peers at a birthday card on the coffee table, with a gold “100” on it. “It’s from Tanya from Canada. I met her during my first trip to the then Soviet Union. After a few minutes she asked for my address. I thought that was a little weird, but I gave it anyway. A few weeks later she and her husband showed up on our doorstep in The Hague. They had fled and wanted to move in with us. I honestly wasn’t looking forward to a long stay in our house. Luckily she had family in Canada. Then I made sure that they could go that way after a few weeks, and they built a new life there. In this way we were the gateway to a life in freedom for them.’

As an activist against apartheid in South Africa, you were certainly not a wimp, I understood from your eldest son.

(laughter) ‘He likes to hear the story that I had myself tied to a fence during an action against Shell, which was active in South Africa. Not on the fence of Shell itself, but of a government building next to it. I hoped that no one from Shell would see me, because I worked there in the chemical branch. Fortunately the gods were kind to me. It was 1981, a year later I retired. Apparently you’re going to do crazy things at that age.

‘I have worked at Shell my entire career. My job has always been of secondary importance to me. Working for peace, that’s what my life revolved around. I will ask my sons how they see the future. I’ve never really talked to them about that. They are born optimists. I have to talk to them about it.’