01/27/2023
“I have always done things for people… And I don’t understand people that can only live for themselves. I can’t understand it. Where do you get your happiness? Where do you get your satisfaction? What do you do with your life? What do you do with your strengths? There must be somebody who needs help. There always is.”
Frieda Belinfante, a le***an woman, cellist, conductor, and an anti-Nazi resistance fighter, was born in Amsterdam to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother. She was the first female orchestra conductor in Amsterdam and a pioneer in a male-dominated profession. As a member of the Dutch resistance during the war, she aided the bombing of the registration office in Amsterdam. This plan successfully destroyed 800,000 identity cards of Jews and non-Jews alike. This hindered the German efforts to keep Jews with forged documents from escaping to save their lives.
She came to the United States in 1947 and resumed her musical career in California, forming and conducting the Orange County Philharmonic Society.
Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember Frieda's life and legacy.
