‘Totally own personality’ Elizabeth Schmitz (1938-2024) stood up for the ‘oppressed of the earth’

In her appointment as State Secretary for Justice in the Kok I (1994) Cabinet, the socially moved Elizabeth Schmitz said: “I think I occasionally face decisions that I will take with pain and effort.” Three years later, Schmitz had to tell the illegally residing Turkish family Gümüs and – undoubtedly to her horror – she was nicknamed ‘Iron Dame’ in Opinieblad De Groene Amsterdammer.

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