Frieda Belinfante

Frieda Belinfante was a heroic lesbian resistance fighter from the Netherlands born on May 10th, 1904. In 1920 she fell in love with composer Henriëtte Bosmans, with whom she spent seven years. Frieda also played cello and was friends with other queer artists.

By 1940, Frieda was working with Dutch Resistance Group Groep 2000. Her close friend Willem Arondeús and other members of her cell created false identity cards for Dutch Jews to escape arrest and deportation. Frieda was especially talented in the forging of documents and saved countless lives. By 1943 there was concern that the false cards could be cross referenced with the Nazi’s municipal records building. Frieda created the plan to blow up the building and guarantee the safety of thousands of Jews living with the fake IDs. In a team effort that included many queer resistance members, weapons and explosives were stockpiled in the basement of a lesbian bar named Cafe Mandje. Even though she wanted to directly participate, sadly Frieda was not allowed to as she was a woman. Frieda snuck along anyway and watched from a nearby rooftop to keep an eye on her compatriots. The building was destroyed, taking with it 800,000 original ID cards. Though everyone made it home that night, the group was eventually betrayed. 

Willem was arrested and refused to name names, but his notebook was found and a total of 14 resistance fighters were captured. Nearly all of them were executed. Frieda immediately went into hiding, disguising herself as a man named Hans. She even passed her own mother in the street, who did not recognize her in the disguise. For 3 months she avoided capture, at which point the resistance helped her escape the city and head for Switzerland.  Once in France, the French resistance ferried her and her Jewish friend Tony safely through the country. Tony was frequently terrified and exhausted. He begged her to leave him since he was afraid his Jewish features would damn her as well. Frieda said it wouldn’t matter; if they were caught they were dead either way. She pushed him on and on, saving his life. In the winter of 1944, Frieda and Tony had to cross the Alps on foot, and when they finally reached the bridge into Switzerland, they found it had been destroyed.  In the middle of a blizzard they forded the river. Frieda fortunately had packed a towel which aided in their surviving the freezing waters. She recalled later that the final 12 hour part of their escape was the most quiet and wonderful part, after war and clandestine travel. 

Frieda moved to the US 2 years after the war and founded the Orange County Philharmonic Orchestra. She conducted and taught music for many years. Sadly, because of her being a woman and a lesbian, she was ousted from the orchestra in 1962. Frieda shared her story with Dr. Klaus Muller in 1994 for the USHMM. This was just months before she died on March 5th, 1995 in New Mexico, leaving over 8 hours of detailed testimony.