Den Doolaard went to high school in
The Hague. After the death of his father he worked as an accountant with the Batavian Petroleum Company (from 1920 to 1928). In 1926 he made his debut with a collection of poems. In 1928 he terminated his job and started a number of wanderings through the
Balkans and France, where he had several jobs such as mason, grape picker, farm worker and longshoreman. He incorporated the experiences gained during his wanderings in novels and newspaper articles. In 1939, the Dutch magazine
Wij published as a serial his historical novella
Dolken en rozenkransen (
Daggers and rosaries), about the murder of the Yugoslav king
Alexander in October 1934 in
Marseille. Very early, den Doolaard published warning articles against the rising fascism. A number of critical articles that he wrote for the Dutch daily newspaper
Het Volk about totalitarian countries was bundled in 1937 in
Swastika over Europa - een grote reportage (
The Swastika over Europe - a major report). These anti-Nazi articles resulted in his expulsion from Italy, Austria and Germany. The German daily
Völkische Beobachter accused Den Doolaard of "libelous reporting". From the edition of a thousand copies, the approximately 500 unsold copies were destroyed by publisher
Querido in May 1940, when the
German army invaded the Netherlands and he and his wife fled to the south. They eventually succeeded in reaching England as
Engelandvaarder, after spending nearly a year in France. In London he worked for the Dutch radio broadcasting station
Radio Oranje and often delivered speeches to the Dutch people under German occupation, encouraging resistance. After the Second World War, den Doolaard returned to the Netherlands. From 1954 he lived in Hoenderloo. == Recognition in Macedonia ==