Dutch artist, writer and resistance fighter Willem Arondéus was BOTD in 1894. Born in Naarden to a mercantile family, he was raised in Amsterdam. At 17, he announced his homosexuality to his parents, eventually leaving home and severing contact with them. He studied decorative painting at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, and began his professional career as a commercial artist, creating illustrations for books, calendars and posters. In 1923, when he was commissioned to create a mural for Rotterdam City Hall, a project that significantly boosted his public profile. Other major commissions include creating nine heraldic tapestries for the States Hall of Haarlem, and a mural for the Municipal Medical and Health Service in Amsterdam. In 1932, he moved to the countryside near Apeldoorn to live more frugally while pursuing his painting career, and formed a relationship with greengrocer’s son Jan Tijssen. His fortunes improved in the late 1930s with the publication of his novels Het Uilenhuis (The Owl House) and In de Bloeiende Ramenas (In the Blossoming Radish), and a highly-praised study of the artist Matthijs Maris. Following the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, Arondeus returned to Amsterdam and joined the Dutch Resistance, starting an underground newspaper, the Brandarisbrief, and publicly condemning artists who collaborated with Nazi forces. As the Nazis began deporting Jews from the city, he and fellow activist Frieda Belinfante organised all-night “forgery parties”, fuelled by alcohol and amphetamines, to create fake identity documents for Jews and other fugitives, allowing them to leave the country. In 1943, he participated in the bombing of the Amsterdam civil registry office, hindering the Nazis’ attempts to verify forged documents. He and his colleagues were arrested a week later, with only Belinfante escaping. Put on trial, he pled guilty, taking full responsibility for the arson attack and sparing two of his colleagues from execution. Before his execution, Arondéus asked his supporters to publicise his homosexuality, reportedly saying “Zeg de mensen dat homoseksuelen niet per definitie zwakkelingen zijn” (“Tell people that homosexuals are not inherently weak”). He was executed by firing squad on 1 July 1943, aged 48. After the war, he was posthumously awarded a medal of honour by the Dutch government. In the 1980s, he was awarded the Resistance Memorial Cross, and was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for his efforts to save Jews from persecution. He was played by Sean Hart in A Small Light, a 2023 TV mini-series about Resistance member Miep Gies.