Willem Arondeus (22 August 1894 – 1 July 1943) was a Dutch artist and author who joined the Dutch anti-Nazi resistance movement during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He participated in the bombing of the Amsterdam public records office to hinder the Nazi German effort to identify Dutch Jews and others wanted by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

. Arondeus was caught and executed soon after his arrest.

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

recognized Arondeus as Righteous Among the Nations. Arondeus was openly gay before the war and defiantly asserted his sexuality before his execution. His final words were: "Tell the people that homosexuals are not by definition weak."

Early life

Willem Johan Cornelis Arondeus was born in

Naarden Naarden () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and former List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Gooi region in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It has been part ...

, as the youngest son of an

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

fuel trader. His parents were Hendrik Cornelis Arondeus and Catharina Wilhelmina de Vries. He started working as an illustrator, designer of posters and tapestries and a painter. In 1923 he was commissioned to paint a large mural for

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

City Hall. During that same period, he illustrated poems by

J. H. Leopold Jan Hendrik Leopold (May 11, 1865 – June 21, 1925) was a Dutch poet and classicist. Leopold was born at 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. After living in Arnhem he moved to Rotterdam early in 1892, where he became a teacher of classical languages ...

Pieter Cornelis Boutens Pieter Cornelis BoutensHis original family name was changed from Bouters to Boutens by a decision of the District Court of Middelburg, 14 March 1898, Act No. 79 (February 20, 1870 – March 14, 1943) was a Dutch poet, classicist, and mystic. Bi ...

and

Martinus Nijhoff Martinus Nijhoff (20 April 1894, in The Hague – 26 January 1953, in The Hague) was a Dutch poet and essayist. He studied literature in Amsterdam and law in Utrecht. His debut was made in 1916 with his volume ''De wandelaar'' ("The wanderer"). F ...

. He admired the older Dutch designer Richard Roland Holst, as can be seen in his work. He did not attain much fame and lived in impoverished circumstances. Willem Arondeus on the island Urk - around 1921

Willem Arondeus on the island Urk - around 1921

Around 1935, he gave up visual arts and became an author. The poems and stories he had written in the 1920s went unpublished, but in the year 1938 he published two novels, ''Het Uilenhuis'' ('The Owls House') and ''In de bloeiende Ramenas'' ('In the Blossoming Winter Radish'), both illustrated with designs by Arondeus himself. The year 1939 saw the publication of his best work, ''Matthĳs Maris: de tragiek van den droom'' ('The Tragedy of the Dream'), a biography of the painter

Matthijs Maris Matthias Maris (17 August 1839 – 22 August 1917) was a Dutch painter, etcher and lithographer. He was also known as Matthijs Maris or Thijs. He initially belonged to the Hague School, like his two brothers, Jacob and Willem, but his later w ...

, who was a brother of the Dutch artists

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...

and

Willem Maris Willem Maris (18 February 1844 – 10 October 1910) was a Dutch landscape painter of the Hague School. Biography He was born in The Hague. Willem was the third in a family of five children. His two brothers Jacob and Matthijs Maris preceded him ...

. Two years later, ''Figuren en problemen der monumentale schilderkunst in Nederland'' ('Figures and Problems of Monumental Painting in the Netherlands') was published, again with designs by the author. At that date, however, Arondeus was already involved with the Dutch resistance movement.

Resistance movement

In 1942, Arondeus started an underground periodical called the ''Brandarisbrief''. In 1943, the ''Brandarisbrief'' merged with another publication called ''De Vrije Kunstenaar''. Through the merger, Arondeus met

Gerrit van der Veen Gerrit van der Veen (26 November 1902, Amsterdam — 10 June 1944, Overveen) was a Dutch sculptor. He was a member of the Dutch underground, which resisted the German occupation of Amsterdam during World War II. The historian Robert-Jan van Pe ...

, the editor of ''De Vrije Kunstenaar''. In the resistance, van der Veen specialized in forging identity cards. As a result, Arondeus also became involved in creating forged documents, along with lesbian resistant Frieda Belinfante. A major detriment to the success of these forgeries was the Municipal Office for Population Registration as its existence made the forgeries less useful, since their legitimacy could be checked against the registration lists and determined to be fakes. Arondeus and van der Veen, along with a number of associates, developed a plan to destroy the registration office. Their attack, which took place on 27 March 1943, was partially successful, and they managed to destroy 800,000 identity cards (15% of the records"De aanslag op het Amsterdamse bevolkingsregister"
Verzetsmuseum (Dutch)), and retrieve 600 blank cards and 50,000

guilders Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' "gold penny". This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Empir ...

. The building was blown up and no one was caught on the night of the attack. However, due to an unknown betrayer, Arondeus was arrested on 1 April 1943. Arondeus refused to give up the rest of his team but his notebook was found, and as a result, a majority of the group were also arrested. Belifante was the sole person from the group to have survived, forcing her to take on a man's identity and go undercover. On 18 June 1943, Arondeus was tried and sentenced to death, along with 13 other men who participated. Two of the group received clemency, but the others were executed on 1 July 1943. Arondeus pleaded guilty and took the full blame, which may be why two young doctors were spared from execution and given custodial sentences instead. Before his execution, Arondeus made a point of ensuring the public would be aware that he and two other men in the group, Bakker and Brouwer, were gay, asking either a friend or his lawyer (accounts vary) to: "Tell the people that homosexuals can be brave!"

Legacy

In 1945, after the liberation of the Netherlands, Arondeus's family was awarded a posthumous medal by the Dutch government in his honour. In 1984, he was awarded the

Resistance Memorial Cross The Resistance Memorial Cross or Resistance Commemorative Cross ( nl, Verzetsherdenkingskruis) is a medal awarded in the Netherlands to members of the Dutch resistance during the Second World War. The medal was instituted by Royal Decree (No. 104 ...

. On 19 June 1986,

recognized Arondeus as Righteous Among the Nations. In 2023 the English actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry made a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

documentary about Arondeus and Belinfante's wartime resistance activity, ''Willem & Frieda'', notably the "all-night forgery parties fuelled by booze and amphetamines hatsaved thousands of Jews".

Gallery

Willem Arondeus - Salome - Metropolitan Museum.jpg, ''Salome'', 1916 Willem Arondéus - potloodtekening.jpg, Pencil drawing Willem Arondeus - Bloesems belofte wordt nu in oogsten vervuld, september - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - RP-T-1930-87.jpg, Calendar design for September, drawing, 1930–31 Willem Arondeus - De beker van het najaar is met weemoed gevuld, october - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - RP-T-1930-88.jpg, Calendar design for October, drawing, 1930–31 Willem Arondeus - Op vleugelen van storm nadert de winter - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - RP-T-1930-89.jpg, Calendar design for November, drawing, 1930–31 Willem Arondeus - Ter ruste neigt het jaar in mantel van koude, december - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - RP-T-1930-90.jpg, Calendar design for December, drawing, 1930–31 Willem Arondeus, Brieftelegrammen, een gevleugeld woord 1937-1938.jpg, ''Brieftelegrammen, een gevleugeld woord'', 1937–38 Willem Arondeus - Ontwerp affiche zomerpostzegel - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - RP-T-1938-9.jpg, Design for a stamp, 1938 File:Willem Arondéus - Purgatorium - Ink and chalk on paper - 41 x 26 cm.jpg, ''Purgatory'', ink and chalk on paper, 1943

Biographies

* Dantzig, Rudi van: Het leven van Willem Arondéus 1894-1943: een documentaire. Amsterdam, 2003. * Entrop, Marco: Onbekwaam in het compromis. Willem Arondéus, kunstenaar en verzetsstrĳder. Amsterdam, 1993. * O'Corra, Simon, Arondeus, A Play, Sachet Mixte Press, France, 2017 * O'Corra, Simon, Perfidious, A Play, Sachet Mixte Press, Spain, 2019

References

External links

*
Biography (in Dutch)''Stephen Fry: Willem & Frieda - Defying Nazis''
(documentary film) {{DEFAULTSORT:Arondeus, Willem 1894 births 1943 deaths People from Naarden 20th-century Dutch writers Dutch resistance members Dutch Righteous Among the Nations Recipients of the Resistance Memorial Cross Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany Dutch LGBT painters Dutch gay artists Dutch gay writers Gay painters People executed by Nazi Germany by firing squad Dutch people executed by Nazi Germany Deaths by firearm in the Netherlands 20th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters 20th-century Dutch male writers 20th-century Dutch LGBT people 20th-century Dutch male artists