Frieda Brommet was born on 11 August 1925 in Amsterdam, where she grew up at Zuider-Amstellaan 74-I (now Rooseveltlaan) in the Rivierenbuurt neighbourhood. Her mother Rebecca Ritmeester-Brommet (1897-1989) was a housewife; her father Joel (Jo) Brommet (1896-1945) was a window dresser for De Bijenkorf, among others.^[1]

Frieda went to the Dintel School, at 5-7 Dintelstraat. After that, she went to the three-year Trade School. When she was in the third grade there, the war broke out in the Netherlands and she became aware of her Jewishness for the first time. As she would often say later: "On 10 May, I became Jewish."^[2]

Hiding and betrayal

After the third grade, Frieda continued at the Secondary Trade School. When she transferred there to the fifth grade, she had to leave school because of anti-Jewish measures and went to the HBS School on Mauritskade, which was specially set up for Jewish students.^[3]

In early July 1942, Frieda received a call-up to report for labour. Like Margot Frank, she was 16 when she received the call-up. Frieda's father got the idea of faking scarlet fever and went to the Zentralstelle on 14 July 1942, arranging a postponement. On the way home from the Zentralstelle, there was an unexpected raid and Jo Brommet was rounded up, along with 700 other Jewish people. He eventually managed to escape and decided to go into hiding with his family.^[4]

The Brommet family had to pay large sums of money for hiding and were not given enough to eat. In the spring of 1944, it was therefore decided to find another solution. This came through the daughter of the family hiding them. She had contacts with a couple who could take the Brommet family to Switzerland for a fee. But after paying 15,000 guilders, there was no trace of the couple and instead, on 29 June 1944, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) raided the house and the Brommet family was arrested. The Brommet family had been betrayed by two notorious SD infiltrators: married couple Jeanne Valkenburg^[5] and Joop Bom.^[6]

Deportation

Frieda was first taken with her father and mother to Euterpestraat in Amsterdam for interrogation. The family was then detained in the prison on Weteringschans. Here Frieda met the poet Rozette (Ronnie) Goldstein-van Cleef (1921-2008), with whom she became good friends. She helped her write poems for the men in prison.^[2]

On 1 July 1944, Frieda arrived at Camp Westerbork. A month later, the Frank family was also brought there and they met in the staff barracks.^[7] Before going into hiding, the Brommet family and the Frank family lived close together and knew each other from the neighbourhood.^[8] Like the Frank family, Frieda and her mother were put to work on the batteries.^[9]

On 3 September 1944, Frieda was put on a transport to Auschwitz with her parents, like the people from the Secret Annex. At the selection at the Rampe, she saw her father for the last time. After registration, the women were shaved bald and had a number tattooed on their arm. Frieda's number was A25080, her mother's A25079. Once in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, Frieda, like her mother, had to perform forced labour. They lugged stones from one side of the camp to the other side, and back again. Ronnie van Cleef wrote a poem for her about it.^[10]

After her arrival in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Frieda Brommet soon found herself in the Krätzeblock. Ronnie van Cleef had already been admitted there with scarlet fever; Frieda also became infected and was put in the Krätzeblock with her and the Frank sisters. Conditions in the Krätzeblock were bad. To help their daughters, Frieda Brommet and Edith Frank's mother, and helped by Lenie de Jong, dug a hole somewhere along the side of the hut to give food to the children.^[11] Frieda recalled how she was fed through the hole:

''And during that period when Ronnie and I were there together, the thing is that my mother and Mrs Frank, Edith, formed a kind of couple. Because together they stole things they ... They dug a hole together. (...) One day my mother came and she could also speak through that hole, and she said, she would shout, 'Frieda! Frieda!' (...) And said: 'Mrs Frank and I are the only ones here in the camp now. We have been hiding because the group has been put on a transport. But we hid because we wanted to stay with you. And we stole some bread and I am giving it to you now through the hole and you have to share it between the four of you.' And that four was with Margot and Anne (...).'^[2]

In the Krätzeblock, Frieda soon became even sicker, contracting typhus fever, Durchfall (diarrhoea) and eventually pleurisy. She thus ended up in several infirmary huts and was reunited with her mother who had also fallen ill. In mid-January 1945, Auschwitz was cleared for the approaching Soviet army. Frieda and her mother remained in the infirmary hut and were liberated by the Soviet army on 27 January 1945.^[12]

After liberation

It took Frieda months to recover from the illnesses she contracted in Auschwitz. She therefore devoted the first years after the war to her recovery, as well as attending various courses and evening grammar school. She also got work as a telephone operator, which she could perform lying down while recovering.^[13] In January 1951, she married Herman Samuel Menco (1925-2002), who had also survived Auschwitz.^[14] They had two sons together.^[15]

Frieda later recounted her war experiences in schools and in interviews. She said about this: "What I can still do today, against indifference and against injustice. For me, that is the basis of everything."^[2]

On 15 March 2011, Frieda was at the Anne Frank House for the opening of the exhibition Margot, sister of Anne.^[16]

Source personal data.^[17] Addresses: Amsterdam, Zuider-Amstellaan 74-I (until summer '42);^[18] Tilburg (May-June '45);^[19] Amsterdam, Henry Polaklaan 8-10 (summer '45); Henry Polaklaan 27II (24 Mar '47).^[20]