Former Ambassador of the Netherlands, Alexander Heldring, was accredited to Ghana, Togo and Benin from September 1997 through September 2002.
He was born in Amsterdam on 13 December 1939 and in 1967 he graduated in International Public Law at Leyden University.
He entered the Netherlands foreign service in 1969 and he served in countries such as Poland, Belgium (NATO Brussels), USA (Washington DC), Czechoslovakia, Surinam and Switzerland (UN Geneva).
In 1970 and 1971, he was in charge of the Israeli interests' section at the Dutch embassy in Warsaw during the era that the Netherlands represented Israel's interests in Poland (1967-1985).
Alexander Heldring was Deputy Head of Mission in Tokyo from 1994 to 1997 and before that he served as Ambassador to Burkina Faso and Niger. His other African experiences include Ethiopia and Zambia.
He is married to Frauke Heldring and they have two daughters.
His hobbies are sailing, photography and computing.
Alexander Heldring retired from the Dutch foreign service on 1 June 2003.
He has written a novel about his experiences in Poland and Surinam (see Saramacca Road in the Navigator) and a Ph.D. dissertation about the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonization and its project in Surinam (1946-1956). See our Welcoming page on the Saramacca Project.
He also wrote The International Federation of Resistance Movements, The Hague, 1968. Heldring is also an expert on the subject of Jews of Poland, the Israeli interests' section of the Netherlands Embassy in Warsaw from 1967-1986. See also the following announcement by the Genootschap voor de Joodse Wetenschap in Nederland.

Honours:
Officier dans l'Ordre national du Burkina Faso
Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star, Japan
Order of the Grand Medal of the Republic of Ghana, Honorary Division
Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary International.

Mrs Frauke Heldring-de Wiljes was spokeswoman for the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices harmful to Women and Children (Geneva and Addis Ababa) from 1986-1998. In honour of her efforts in helping to combat Female Genital Muitilation she received the Netherlands Royal distinction of Member of the Order of Orange-Nassau and the Ordre du Merite du Burkina Faso.

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