Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema (3 April 1917 – 26 September 2007) was a Dutch writer who became a resistance fighter and RAF pilot during the Second World War. Near the end of the war he was adjudant (assistant) to Queen Wilhelmina. He was made Knight 4th class of the Military William Order. He is perhaps best known for his book (Soldier of Orange) which described his experiences in the war. His book was later made into a film. The book and the film about it eventually were made into the most successful Dutch musical ever, premiering 30 October 2010. Early life Roelfzema was born in the former Dutch East Indies in Surabaya, on Java, when it was under colonial rule. He was from a patrician family, which is listed in the . He was the second child of Siebren Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema and his wife Cornelia Vreede. His older sister, Ellen, had been born two years before. His father managed rubber and coffee plantations. In the 1930s the family returned to the Netherlands so the children could be provided with a good education. They initially moved to The Hague, and later moved on to Wassenaar. He played soccer and was a member of the Hague Football Association. Roelfzema started writing in his teens. From 16 years of age onward he was committed to becoming a writer. He attended the University of Leiden and was a member of the Leidsch Student Corps Minerva society while living at Rapenburg 56 across the canal from the Academiegebouw. During his hazing initiation the president of his student corps, Ernst de Jonge, threw a soup tureen at a group of new students, striking Roelfzema in the head and cutting his scalp. De Jonge had been an Olympic rower at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, and was very popular among the students. His accidental wounding of Roelfzema was the basis for their forming a friendship. After completing his first year of study Roelfzema took time off to travel to the United States and crossed the country by freighthopping and hitchhiking. In 1939 he wrote a book of this experience, titled Rendezvous in San Francisco, which became a bestseller in the Netherlands. War in Europe Following his trip abroad Roelfzema returned to Leiden University to continue his studies. When war broke out in Europe in September, 1939, Roelfzema and his fellow students supposed Holland would remain