Johannes C. Pompe, MD, Hero of neuroscience: The man behind the syndrome

Johannes Pompe is famous for describing type II glycogenosis, Pompe disease. However, Pompe's participation in the Dutch resistance during World War II has not been well described in the neurology literature. Pompe saved many Jews by hiding them as patients, saved a Jewish boy who was a neighbor, hid many young resistance fighters in his laboratory, resisted the Nazi call for all Dutch doctors to submit to their puppet physician's chamber, and hid a radio transmitter in the animal room of his laboratory. He was executed by firing squad in a German reprisal shortly before the end of the war. Pompe's patriotism and religious and humanitarian values seem to have been the basis for his actions. His heroic and tragic story should not be forgotten and should serve as an example to all during such dark times.