Miep Lobatto

Marie (Miep) Elisabeth Lobatto came from a Portuguese Jewish family that lived in Amsterdam South. Miep was the daughter of Salomon Lobatto (1899–1936) and Margaretha de Vries (1898–1943).^[1] She had an older brother, Jacob (Jaap) Louis Lobatto.^[2]

In 1941, Miep was enrolled at the Gemeentelijk Lyceum voor Meisjes (Municipal Lyceum for Girls) at Reinier Vinkeleskade 62 in Amsterdam, where she was supposed to start in the first year after the summer holidays.^[3] However, because Jewish students and teachers were banned from attending regular schools from 1 September 1941, she had to transfer to the Jewish Lyceum. In the schoolyear 1941-'42 she was in class 1L2, which also included Anne Frank.^[4] Miep sat next to Anne in class 1L2, but although they sat next to each other they had no close contact. She did remember the brown specks in Anne's eyes and that she wore braces. She thought Anne was a good laugh.^[5] In her diary Anne describes Miep as "the most beautiful girl in our class," but also as "pretty stupid." But against Anne's expectations Miep, she did not have to repeat a year.^[6] In school year 1942-'43 she was in class 2B.^[4] Miep's older brother Jaap also attended the Jewish Lyceum. He was in class 5B during the 1941-'42 school year.^[7]

Like her brother Jaap, she went into hiding in 1943. In doing so, she was helped by a cousin of Willy Pos, her Dutch teacher at the Jewish Lyceum.^[8] In the first period of her hiding, she was housed at addresses in Heiloo, Alkmaar and Bergen, but in the course of 1944 the then 15-year-old Miep ended up in the southern part of the Netherlands, first in Maastricht and later in Breda, where she witnessed the liberation on 29 October 1944.^[9]

In 2001, she wrote an epilogue to Absent, Dienke Hondius' book about the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam.^[10]

Source personal data.^[11]  Address: Johannes Verhulststraat 175, Amsterdam.^[11]