Herman Frijda was born in Amsterdam on 22 July 1887.^[1] After obtaining his HBS and Gymnasium diplomas, he went on to study law at Leiden University. There he obtained his Ph.D. in law in 1911. In 1914 he also obtained a Ph.D. in political sciences with his thesis De theorie van het geld en het Nederlandsche geldwezen (The theory of money and the Dutch financial system). In 1921 he became professor of political economics and statistics at the University of Amsterdam. He became rector magnificus of the same university in 1938. On 9 September 1938, Herman Frijda acted as Queen Wilhelmina's supervisor for her promotion to Doctor of Economic Sciences.^[2]

On 26 October 1922, Herman Frijda married Dora Hermance Charlotte Frank (1901-1997).^[3] Together they had three children: Leo (1923-1943), Jetteke (1925-2016), Nico (1927-2015). From 16 September 1929, the family was registered at Corellistraat 3 in Amsterdam.^[1]

His daughter Jetteke became friends with Margot Frank from 1938 onwards, through which Herman Frijda got to know the Frank family.^[4]

According to Jetteke Frijda, her father was part of an Academisch Steun Comité (Academic Support Committee), showing, according to her: 'he was concerned [...] about the people, the professors, who wanted or had to leave Germany and he tried to help those people find work here.'^[5]

At the end of November 1940, Herman Frijda was dismissed as a professor due to anti-Jewish measures introduced by the German occupier. Shortly afterwards, in February 1941, he was approached by Abraham Asscher (1880-1950) and David Cohen (1882-1967) to take a seat on the Jewish Council, which he refused on principle.^[6]

Like the other members of his family, Herman Frijda eventually went into hiding. On 1 October 1943, his son Leo was shot in the dunes near Overveen after the resistance group CS-6, of which Leo was a member, was rolled up.^[7]

Auschwitz

Almost a year later, on 19 July 1944, Herman Frijda was arrested at his hiding place in Leeuwarden. On 26 August 1944, he arrived in Westerbork and, like the eight people in hiding from the Secret Annex, had to be transported to Auschwitz concentration camp.^[8]

When he arrived in Auschwitz, Herman Frijda probably ended up in the Straßenbau command, just like Hermann van Pels. Fellow camp inmate and physician Eddy de Wind (1916-1987) remembered Herman Frijda and the conditions in which he had to work: 'He had only been able to endure dragging carts all day long for a few weeks and that is how he ended up in the hospital.'^[9]

Another inmate and physician Elie Aron Cohen (1909-1993) also wrote about his encouter with Herman Frijda in Auschwitz. He remembered: 'In a Stube of Block 9 lay Professor Frijda, Queen Wilhelmina's tutor. In just a few weeks of knowing him, I became good friends with him. He spoke proudly about his son, who had fallen in battle for the Netherlands.'^[10]

According to both Eddy de Wind and Elie Cohen, it was impossible to do anything for Herman Frijda after he ended up in the sick barracks. Eddy de Wind remembered: 'We couldn't declare that he was well. Then he would be summarily dismissed and the man could not even walk a hundred meters.'^[11]

Data from the Red Cross and various testimonies show that Herman Frijda was gassed on 3 October 1944.^[12]

His wife, daughter and youngest son survived the war in hiding. Jetteke Frijda remembered that after the war Otto Frank told her that he had met her father in Auschwitz.^[13]