Later Years
Coster was politically involved. In 1938 he traveled to Berlin to convince Lise Meitner that she had to leave Germany to escape the persecution of the Jews. Together they went by train to Groningen; from there she went on to Sweden by way of Copenhagen. During the German occupation of Holland, he also helped Jews hide from the Nazis and listened to the BBC on a daily basis using a bicycle-powered radio. He died in Groningen.
The asteroid 10445 Coster is named after Dirk Coster.
Read more about this topic: Dirk Coster
Famous quotes containing the word years:
“It is bitter to think of one’s best years disappearing in this unpolished country.”
—Greta Garbo (1905–1990)
“The years of imprisonment hardened me.... Perhaps if you have been given a moment to hold back and wait for the next blow, your emotions wouldn’t be blunted as they have been in my case. When it happens every day of your life, when that pain becomes a way of life, I no longer have the emotion of fear. ... there is no longer anything I can fear. There is nothing the government has not done to me. There isn’t any pain I haven’t known.”
—Winnie Mandela (b. 1936)