On this day, 27 March 1943, gay anti-fascist resistance fighter Willem Arondeus led a group in bombing the Amsterdam Public Records Office which the Nazis had used to identify Dutch Jews, and which they could use to verify papers, which the resistance were forging. Thousands of files were destroyed.
Within a week, Arondeus (pictured, right) and the other members of the group were arrested. One of the group, Frieda Belinfante, a musician and lesbian, managed to evade capture.
Twelve, including Arondeus, were executed that July by firing squad.
In his last message before his execution, Arondeus said, “Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.”
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