Most mornings I enjoy my breakfast, silently acknowledging the women covering the wall that is directly in front of me.  The photos of these women are a mix of famous lesbians.  My partner and I call it our 'lesbian wall of courage' and often challenge other lesbians who visit us to name them.  Not many get all the names right, mainly because these heroic lesbians aren't mentioned publicly - they become lost in time.  

One lesbian in particular stares out at me with an enigmatic smile, a cigarette held between small fingers pushing between determined lips.  I can't be sure about the smile though.  Sometimes it looks as though she's confronting me as she stares straight back at the camera lens. Her name is Frieda Belinfante.  On our wall she sits between Barbara Johnson and Audre Loudre. I'd never heard of her until about five years ago when by chance I found her amongst a collection of lesbians who had done remarkable acts of bravery during the rise of the Nazi Party. 

During the occupation in Holland from 1943, Frieda joined the resistance and began forging documents for people hiding from the Nazis.  She and Willem Arondeus (a gay man whom she befriended) helped plan an attack on the Amsterdam registration office, destroying personal files to keep the forged documents safe and useful to allow many Jews and homosexuals to escape the clutches of the Gestapo.

Frieda disguised herself as a man to escape the Gestapo as she fled to Switzerland with her lover Henriette Bosmans (when it was clear the 'game was up' and she was in real danger).  Frieda survived the war and lived to be 90.  

Frieda was also an accomplished cellist and conductor in both Holland the USA where she emigrated after the war.  She led the Orange Country Philharmonic Orchestra where she employed many musicians.  This was a non-profit orchestra funded entirely on donations. 

Stephen Fry (an English actor and broadcaster) fronts a documentary about Belinfante and Arondeus's wartime resistance activities, notably the "all night forgery parties fuelled by booze and amphetamines that saved thousands of Jews"

You can find this documentary on Maori Television on demand.  It's really worth watching as you get glimpses of Frieda talking to a reporter in the 1980's about her life with the Dutch Resistance.   

LB May 2024