Anna Böeseken


Anna Böeseken was a South African history academic, journalist and writer who wrote under the pen name AJ. She is best known for her expertise as an authority of the history of the Dutch East India Company that existed between 1602 and 1798.

Biography

Böeseken's parents were originally Dutch. She studied in both South Africa and Europe before the second world war. She followed Adolf Hitler around in 1913 listening to his speeches in Germany with a friend who was researching world dictators at the time.
She is regarded by modern scholars as one of the leading experts on the history and evolution of the Dutch East India Company. The 2013 publication in the journal Historia volume 48, Issue 2, titled "Historia - Dr. Anna Boëseken : kenner van die Kaapse VOC-geskiedenis "examined her contribution in making the history of the VOC in South Africa accessible and interpreting it for both the expert and layman".
On June 18, 1964 she founded the Genealogical Society which published a quarterly journal Familia.