Judith de Kom, daughter of Surinamese author, activist and resistance fighter Anton de Kom, who died in a Nazi concentration camp after being shunned by the Netherlands, has died at the age of 93.

De Kom spent her life fighting for the recognition of her father’s role as an activist and his bravery during the Second World War.

In 2023, prime minister Mark Rutte apologised for the way the government of the time treated Anton de Kom. A chair at Amsterdam’s VU University was established which bears his name and focuses on the impact of slavery in present-day society, and De Kom was given a place in the Dutch canon.

“She dedicated her life to making the world a better place and the rehabilitation of her father’s name,” the family said in a statement broadcast by NOS.

“Her life’s motto, ‘to know where you are going you must know where you come from’, was of great importance to her.”

Anton de Kom (1898-1945) was one of the most prominent members of the anti-colonial movement at the beginning of the 20th century. His activism in Suriname was regarded as a “danger to the state” by the Dutch colonial authorities and they banished him to the Netherlands where he wrote We, Slaves of Suriname, the first time the history of Suriname was described from an anti-colonial point of view.

When the war came, De Kom joined the communist resistance. He was arrested in 1944 and died shortly before the liberation, in April 1945, in a concentration camp in Germany.

Last month a book of letters from Judith to her father. Ik omhels je onafgebroken (I embrace you endlessly) was published. “The wreath has been laid, the book is here. Now I can rest,” she told her publisher.