EN

Greet Bezema

Greet Bezema was a classmate of Margot Frank at the Municipal Lyceum for Girls in Amsterdam.

Person

Vervaardiger onbekend. Fotocollectie Anne Frank Stichting Amsterdam
  • Gretha Bezema
  • Born on: Sept. 25, 1925
  • Born in: Amsterdam, Nederland
  • Died on: Nov. 30, 2015
  • Died in: Almere, Nederland

Uitsnede van een klassenfoto van Greet Bezema, Amsterdam, mei 1941.

Vervaardiger onbekend. Fotocollectie Anne Frank Stichting Amsterdam

Rechthebbende(n) onbekend

Gretha (Greet) Bezema was a daughter of Willem Lucas Bezema (1887-1975)[1] and Johanna Wilhelmina Geijsen (1891-1981).[2] She grew up in a socialist family with her older sister Willemina (Mien) Hendrika Bezema (1924).[3] Her father was a primary school teacher and her mother had also worked in education before her marriage. In 1934, when Greet was eight years old, the family moved to the Betondorp neighbourhood in Amsterdam-Watergraafsmeer.[4]

In the school year 1938-'39, she started at the Municipal Lyceum for Girls in class 1c. Margot Frank was in parallel class 1b. The second year, 1939-'40, the classes were rearranged and she and Margot were placed in class 2a.[5] That year they were taught English by Miss Von der Möhlen. According to classmate Hetty Last, she was the ‘favourite teacher in the whole school’,[6] but according to Greet, she was a bit aloof.[7] Von der Möhlen had her students write English letters to pupils abroad. Greet received a letter which she replied to, but the German invasion of the Netherlands interrupted the correspondence and it ended after just that one letter. The English letter Margot wrote during these lessons to Betty Ann Wagner from Danville (Iowa) in the United States has been preserved.[8]

According to Greet, Margot Frank was a kind girl who could learn well. She remembered Margot on a trip to an outdoor swimming pool in Diemen, probably in the summer of 1940:[9]

‘Bella Kohlweij said; she was always so neatly dressed. And well that is not something I have memories of. Only once, that was during the war, when we went swimming, somewhere in Diemen in an outdoor pool. And Margot was there too. And Margot walked in a very nice swimsuit.’[10]

Furthermore, she thought she remembered another excursion to the Tafelberg in the Gooi, which Margot attended.[11] However, according to classmate Bella Kohlweij, this excusion was in or after 1943, when Margot was already in hiding.[12] In a 1996 interview, Greet said she had been to Margot's house.[13] This contradicts a later interview from 2011 where she said that she had never been inside Margot's house, but that she may have cycled past her house with Margot on the way home from school.[14]

Because her own family was not religious, she did not notice who was Jewish or not. She didn't know this about Margot either. Children whose parents were in the NSB stood out more to her.[15] When in 1941, as a result of anti-Jewish measures, all Jewish students and teachers were removed from the school, this began to dawn on her more. But according to her, it was not talked about much at school.[16]

After the war, Greet saw an appeal for information about Margot and Anne Frank in the newspaper Het Vrije Volk.[17] She wrote a letter to Otto Frank on 2 October 1945, asking if he had heard any news about Margot. Otto sent her back a letter on 5 October 1945, informing her of his daughters' deaths in Bergen-Belsen. He thanked Greet for her interest in Margot and invited her to come over to talk more about her. They met in the office at Prinsengracht 263.

When Greet first read Het Achterhuis ('The Secret Annex'), she did not recognise Margot in it. She thought the way Anne described her was too negative.

After completing her teacher training, Greet became a teacher like her parents.

Source personal data.[18] Addresses: Amsterdam; Brink 8b hs (1934).[1]

Footnotes

  1. a, b Stadsarchief Amsterdam (SAA), Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238), inv. nr. 1297: Archiefkaart W. L. Bezema.
  2. ^ SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238), inv. nr. 1438: Archiefkaart J.W. Geysen.
  3. ^ SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238), inv. nr. 65: Archiefkaart W.H. Bezema.
  4. ^ Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Getuigenarchief, Bezema, Greet, transcriptie interview Greet Bezema door Erika Prins, 16 november 2011, p. 1-2.
  5. ^ SAA, Gerrit van der Veen Scholengemeenschap en rechtsvoorgangers, toegang 623, inv. nr. 421: rapportenregisters klas 2a, 1939-'40; The following year they were in class 3a together: Ibidem, inv. nr. 491: rapportenregisters klas 3a, 1940-'41.
  6. ^ AFS, Getuigenarchief, Last, Hetty, transcriptie interview Hetty Last door Erika Prins, 16 november 2011, p. 12-15.
  7. ^ AFS, Getuigenarchief, Bezema, Greet, transcriptie interview Greet Bezema door Erika Prins, 16 november 2011, p. 22.
  8. ^ Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), reg. code Extern.00052: Copy letter Margot Frank to Betty Ann Wagner, 27 april 1940. The original letter (as well as Anne's letter to Juanita Wagner, are in the archives of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles, USA; A museum on the correspondence between the Frank and Wagner sisters has been established at the Danville Library, see: Website Danville Station Library and Museum, The Anne Frank Connection.
  9. ^ As of June 1941, Jews were no longer allowed to go to the pool, see: “De bekendmaking inzake badplaatsen enz.”, Het Joodsche Weekblad, 27 juni 1942.
  10. ^ AFS, interview Greet Bezema, 2011, p. 8.
  11. ^ AFS, interview Greet Bezema, 2011, p. 20: During the interview, she mentioned that she thought she had a photo of the excursion to the Tafelberg, but she could not find this photo.
  12. ^ AFS, Getuigenarchief, Wilk-Kohlwey, Bella, transcriptie interview Bella van der Wilk-Kohlwey door Erika Prins, 16 november 2011, p. 12; From September 1941, Margot Frank could no longer attend the Lyceum for Girls due to anti-Jewish measures. She then had to go to the 4th class of the HBS of the Jewish Lyceum, located at Voormalige Stadstimmertuin 1, in Amsterdam. She attended school there until she had to go into hiding in the Secret Annex on 6 July 1942.
  13. ^ AFS, Getuigenarchief, Bezema, Greet, verslag gesprek Greet Bezema met Dineke Stam, 10 mei 1996.
  14. ^ AFS, interview Greet Bezema, 2011, p. 21.
  15. ^ Ibidem, p. 4-5.
  16. ^ Ibidem, p. 9-10.
  17. ^ 'Inlichtingen gevraagd omtrent', Het Vrije Volk, 1 augustus 1945; AFS, AFC, reg. code A_OFrank_VI_001.
  18. ^ SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Persoonskaarten (toegangsnummer 30408), inv. nr. 49: Persoonskaart G. Bezema; Genealogie Online: Gretha Bezema.