Background
Born in Rotterdam in 1928, Polak"s father was a university professor of business administration and rector at the Netherlands School of Economics (later Erasmus University Rotterdam), his mother was a doctor.
Born in Rotterdam in 1928, Polak"s father was a university professor of business administration and rector at the Netherlands School of Economics (later Erasmus University Rotterdam), his mother was a doctor.
Minus Polak studied Dutch law at the University of Amsterdam until 1953.
As a judge he served first in the kanton court of Rotterdam and later in the Council of State of the Netherlands. He then returned to Rotterdam to work as a lawyer In 1966 he went into politics and stopped working as a lawyer
He was elected to the municipal council of Rotterdam and at the same time he was made alderman concerning infrastructure and public works.
In 1974 he resigned his position as alderman after a conflict concerning funding for the airport of Zestienhoven. The municipal council held him responsible for the airport, but refused to provide him with the money to buy a firetruck.
Polak felt that without the firetruck he could not provide the safety that was needed and therefor chose to resign. Shortly after resigning as alderman he took up the position of President of the Board of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the same university his father was once rector of.
Polak would serve for just over one year as senator, until September 1977.
Earlier in 1977 his presidency of the board of the university ended and he took up his job as a lawyer once more. One year later, in 1978, he would also be elected to the municipal council of Rotterdam again. In 1983 Polak quit as a lawyer and became a judge in the kanton court of Rotterdam.
In 1985 he ended both his function as a judge in the kanton court and as a member in the municipal council.
Polak would serve between 1985 and 1995. Near the end of his life Polak was nearly deaf.
He died of myocardial infarction on 4 February 2014.
As a politician Polak served at different times as a member of the municipal council of Rotterdam, alderman of the same city and Senate of the Netherlands between 1966 and 1985 for the People"s Party for Freedom and Democracy. He did however continue on as a member of the municipal council for another two years. Two years into his presidency he was elected to the Senate, and two weeks after becoming a member of that institution his membership of the municipal council of Rotterdam ended.
He then became a member of the Council of State of the Netherlands, the highest court of the Netherlands regarding decisions taken by the executive government.