Johan van Lom

Johan "Han" van Lom († 6. March 1945 ) was a Dutch lawyer who during the Second World War with the Dutch resistance movement worked and by the end of the war with the Nazis collaborated . This led to the arrest of other members of the Dutch resistance movement. In return, the German occupiers released a family friend of Johan van Lom's. His betrayal led to the arrest and subsequent execution of Walraven van Hall , banker and leader of the Dutch resistance movement. Van Lom himself was later executed by members of the resistance movement.

Van Lom was experienced as a lawyer, but was unable to complete his studies due to the German occupation . He found work with the lawyer Jan de Port, whose firm in The Hague and Amsterdam protected Jewish families and members of the Dutch resistance. In this environment, he met a number of high-ranking members of the resistance, including Wim van Norden and the publisher of the illegal newspaper Het Parool know. De Pont managed to free a significant number of Parool people after the second trial against the newspaper in the German Supreme Court in Utrecht in 1944. After the trial, van Norden asked de Pont if he would help him set up a pension fund for resistance fighters. De Pont said no, because under no circumstances did he want to be associated with illegality. De Pont, however, referred the publisher to van Lom, an idealistic and newly married young man.

Why van Lom eventually became a collaborator is the subject of debate among journalists and family members. One theory described by Loe de Jong in his book Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog is based on van Lom's admission during his interrogation by the Dutch Resistance that he had an affair with his wife's girlfriend and her sister. According to this theory, van Lom passed on information that resulted in the arrest of some members of the resistance movement; in return, the young woman should be released. Van Lom had negotiated with Friedrich Viebahn from the security service that none of the arrested persons should be executed; Viebahn kept his promise, except in the case of van Hall.

Van Lom fled after his arrest in January 1945 and returned in March. After meeting a member of the resistance, he was kidnapped, interrogated, and eventually sentenced to death by poison. Either he refused to drink the poison or it didn't have the desired effect; in any case, van Lom was finally shot in the neck and thrown into the Keizersgracht . He was 26 years old.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ De verrader en het meisje | last = Botje - Vrij Nederland of December 30, 2013 , accessed on May 9, 2017 (Dutch)