lessons in French, English, and German before passing the accounting examination. This allowed him to become a bookkeeper for the Bank of Amsterdam. With these experiences as a foundation, Fles soon founded his own company. Fles & Company had many interests, all related to serving the needs of other businesses. These included advertising and publishing, as well as the import and sale of high-end German-made Adler typewriters. The addition of a highly successful line of office furniture helped the company expand and establish branch offices throughout the Netherlands. The rise of Nazism in Germany presented both moral and practical problems for the importer of German goods. In 1933, Fles published the brochure Hitler, hervormer of misdadiger? (Hitler, reformer or criminal?) in which he called for a boycott on the importation of all German goods. Fles sold his business and retired in 1934. Activism Writing Fles' earliest published pamphlets, Is in de moderne boekhouding plaats voor het copieboek? (Can copybooks serve a function in modern accounting?) (1918) and Efficiency (1922), were both related to the world of business. However, Louis Fles is better known for his extensive writings on politics, religion, and education. As early as 1917, De Groene Amsterdammer printed his criticism of the way Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) allowed churches to influence the Dutch educational system. In this article, he accused the SDAP of having "sacrificed children to politics". Later writings continued to criticize both political and religious authorities. In Kalenderhervorming, Sjabbat en Kerk (Calendar Reform, Shabbat and Church) (1930), Fles first observed that clinging to cultural and religious practices that set Jewish people apart from the surrounding Dutch culture served to feed the anti-Semitic narrative of Jews as foreigners. He then went on to propose alternative activities families might engage in, such as visiting a museum or other educational pursuits and admonished his reader, "durf vrij te denken", "Dare to think freely." He expanded upon these ideas in Water en vuur (Water and Fire) (1931). Religion, Fles wrote, was as antithetical to socialism as water was to fire. Here Fles repeated his accusation that the government deferred too much to religious—particularly Catholic—authorities, especially in the area of children's education. In 1933 Fles used a pseudonym, Dr. W. Bottema C. Az, to publish Hitler, hervormer of misdadiger? (Hitler, reformer or criminal?). Here Fles enumerated and described the treatment of Jewish people under the Nazi regime, and declared that