Rebecca Brommet - Ritmeester

After two years in hiding, the Brommet family was betrayed by two notorious SD infiltrators: married couple Jeanne Valkenburg^[1] and Joop Bom. The couple said they could transfer the family to Switzerland on payment of thousands of guilders. But after paying 15,000 guilders, there was no trace of the couple and instead, on 29 June 1944, an SD raid took place in which the Brommet family was arrested.^[2]

On 1 July 1944, Rebecca arrived at Camp Westerbork with her husband Joël and daughter Frieda. A month later, the Frank family was also brought in there and they met in the staff barracks. The Brommet family and the Frank family lived close to each other before going into hiding and knew each other from the neighbourhood.^[3] Like the Frank women, Rebecca was put to work on the batteries with her daughter Frieda.^[4]

On 3 September 1944, Rebecca and her daughter were transported to Auschwitz. The Frank family was also put on this transport. Upon arrival at Auschwitz on 6 September 1944, the men and women were separated. Rebecca wrote to her brother in 1945:

'We were separated from the men. Jo still flew at me to kiss me. It was unfortunately for the last time.'^[5]

Rebecca was given the number A25079 on arrival, daughter Frieda A25080. Like the women Frank, Rebecca and Frieda then ended up in Frauenblock 29. Soon daughter Frieda contracted scarlet fever and ended up in the Krätzeblock. There she met the Frank sisters, who were already in the Krätzeblock.^[6]

Conditions in the Krätzeblock were poor. To help their daughters, Rebecca and Edith Frank, helped by Lenie de Jong-van Naarden, dug a hole somewhere along the side of the hut to give food to the children.^[7] Daughter Frieda recalled how she got extra food through the hole:

'And during that period when Ronnie [van Cleef] and I were there together, 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 left 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 (...).^[8]

At the end of October, Ronnie van Cleef and sister Frank were discharged from the Krätzeblock. Frieda Brommet remained alone in the Krätzeblock, but when Rebecca also fell ill, mother and daughter were reunited. As they both suffered from Durchfall (diarrhoea), they were transferred to the special Durchfall-lager. There Rebecca improved slightly, but her daughter got sicker and sicker. When the Germans evacuated the camp in January 1945 because of the approaching Allied troops, mother and daughter were actually supposed to join the death march, but because of sick Frieda, they were eventually left together in the sick barracks. There they were liberated by the Soviet army in late January 1945.^[9] Frieda recounted after the war:

'Alone I would not have survived. Alone you couldn't have survived. My mother helped me survive physically, and I helped her survive mentally. (...)'^[10]

Source personal data.^[11] Addresses: Amsterdam, Amstellaan 74-I (8 Dec 1942); Henry Polaklaan 8-10 (May 1945); Henry Polaklaan 27II (24 Mar 1947); Brooklyn (USA), 423 street 83 (10 Apr 1947); Amsterdam, Louise de Colignystraat 29I (22 July 1960); Bussum, Ceintuurbaan 281 (26 Sept 1979).^[12]