Queer Places:
Keizersgracht 518, 1017 EK Amsterdam, Netherlands
Thomas Sijbrand "Tom" Rot (December 25, 1909 - October 1, 1982) was a resistance fighter in the Second World War who already resisted the rising fascism in the 1930s and was co-founder of the illegal Amsterdam magazine De Vonk.
Tom Rot was born in Amsterdam, the son Cornelis Christiaan Rot and Henderika Keizer. When the Germans occupied The Netherlands in 1940, Nico Engelschman joined the resistance. "During the war I was active in the resistance, but I felt it wasn't that big a deal. One of my brothers and I helped Jewish friends. They're still alive. Jef Last and Tom Rot, who also were in the resistance, came to my house once a week for a meeting. This was from 1943 on, when I started living at the Keizersgracht. I was in hiding, sometimes at my mothers place, sometimes in other houses."
After Henriëtte Roland Holst in the autumn of 1940 expressed her disappointment in a few letters to the youth and students of the Netherlands about the reaction of most of the Dutch population to the occupation by the Germans, Dirk Schilp, Tom Rot and Eddie Wijnkoop banded together with the intention of publishing an illegal magazine. They brought together an editorial team of people from the socialist and anarchist movement, including young people who were part of the Youth Peace Action. Tom Rot had a printing office and therefore many contacts throughout the country. His friend Jef Last was a publicist and he fought in the Spanish Civil War. After a visit to the Soviet Union, he turned away from communism.
In 1942 Rot was arrested by the Germans and sentenced to death, but due to an administrative error he ended up in the Buchenwald concentration camp where he managed to survive. After the war he continued to speak for himself through his involvement in various organizations such as the Simon Wiesenthalfonds.
After the war, De Vonk in the person of Tom Rot was summoned on December 20, 1947 for insulting the Dutch army command in Indonesia, but was later acquitted. He was active sin the creation of the magazine "De Vlam", the successor of De Vonk.
He was also active in the establishment of the national committee against the death penalty.
Rod died in 1982 in Amstelveen.
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