The 700 Club with Pat Robertson

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Frieda Roos Van-Hessen: From Singer to Survivor

Renelle Richardson
The 700 Club

CBN.com - "It’s very difficult to explain to people… to convey to people what it means to live as a fugitive. And that’s what we were, nothing except ourselves and the clothes on our backs."

Frieda Van-Hessen is one of the few remaining Holocaust survivors. At age 92, she can still vividly recount the frightening years that stole her freedom, her dignity, and her career as an opera singer.

"When I was six-years-old, I had what they called a beautiful voice. It was more noticeable than the other children, and I always had the desire to become a singer," she remembers of her younger years.

Her’s was a happy childhood. Frieda was born in 1915 and grew up in Holland, the only daughter of affluent parents. Frieda’s father was an official in the Dutch army. Her mother, a singer, encouraged Frieda’s natural talent for opera.

In fact, Frieda was a rising star from the music conservatory, singing to sold-out audiences.

The Van-Hessens were Jewish but gave little attention to Jewish education or holidays.

"I never knew the story about anything. I didn’t know who Moses was! I never, ever experienced anti-semitism until the Germans came."

The Nazis made strict regulations for Dutch Jews. Frieda and her family had to wear the star of David on their clothes, and as a Jew, Frieda was no longer allowed to perform for non-Jewish audiences.

She continues, "I had a dream about big, black birds flying over our house, and I never knew what that meant. of course it was an icky dream, not very pleasant."

In May of 1940, Germany dropped its first bombs in Holland. Over night, Frieda's life changed from that of a concert performer, to a fugitive who would be on the run for the next four years.

"In the middle of the night, my brother was standing at my bedside shaking me saying, 'Frieda, wake up, we are at war!' It was like another world. And then when we looked at what was happening, those big black birds that I had been dreaming about… those airplanes that they had painted black with the white swastikas, came right over our house."

The Van-Hessens along with Freida’s friend, Meika escaped to another house where they hid for several days. Frieda’s parents were in a different room when a car stopped in front of the house.

"So when I peeked behind the curtain to see what it was, I saw this gigantic black limousine, and I saw the German soldiers with the bayonets standing next to it, and I said, 'Oh my God... Meika, trouble, trouble!'"

The Nazis captured Frieda’s parents, but didn’t find Frieda or her friend. Frieda didn’t know it, but her parents were taken to Auschwitz, the most notorious death camp where over a million Jews were murdered at the hand of the Nazis.

"The last time I saw my parents was with the bayonets to their backs passing by my window. They never looked up. They were terrified to betray us, I’m sure. They looked straight forward," she says. "Then of course, I collapsed. I screamed. I just lost it, totally."

From that day until the war ended, Frieda and Meika lived in terror. They hid in eight different locations provided by sympathetic non-Jews. Whenever they suspected discovery, they ran to another hiding place.

"We were always whispering. You couldn’t trust anybody. You couldn’t even trust family. You never knew… it could come from any side," she says.

Renelle Richardson [reporting]: Did you ever just feel like giving up?

Frieda Van-Hessen: No, actually, I did my exercises. I had an itcy, tiny, little bit of lipstick, and everyday I would put some lipstick on. I did my ballerina exercises, and I wanted to look very pretty when the war was over. I always said, "If they want me, they’re going to have to kill me because they won’t get me alive.”

For four-and-a-half years, Freida fought to survive. Then one day, it all ended.

"We were just all of a sudden told that the war was over, when the bomb came on Japan and all that. We were so void of the news, we didn’t know what was going on. Could you believe it, after living this way for four years?"

"There was just total rejoicing. The flags went up. The people were dancing in the streets. Everybody went crazy because there was peace, but we were so afraid. We had been in this one room so long that when we were out and we had no roof over our head, I was so petrified to look up. I was afraid of the sky. I was afraid of the stars. I was just so scared. It was so big! I guess that’s how people feel when they spend a lifetime in prison."

"It was very strange that we could go in a streetcar or walk in the street without being afraid. To be able to buy things and to go places, it was just a miracle."

Richardson: Did you every think you’d live to see that day?

Van-Hessen: No, it’s something very hard to describe when you have been so void of everything... void of associations, void of food, void of liberty, and void of my own art. I lost my memory when it came to my music.

It took years for Freida to pick up the pieces of her life… nearly all of the people and places she knew were gone. Six million jews had been killed. The rubble was all that remained of Frieda’s home and from a family photo, only five members, including Frieda, survived the Holocaust.

Canadian soldiers were stationed in the area, and Frieda caught the eye of one young Christian man, Keith Saunders.

"I thought he was handsome. I also thought he was very arrogant," she says with laughter.

The two married and planned to move to Canada. That’s when Frieda’s uncle made a strange suggestion.

"He started saying to me that I should become a Christian. That really blew my mind. I said, 'What are you talking about?' He said, 'Well, if this ever happens again, if there’s another war, then they will probably do the same thing to you again.' I just sat still for a minute and I said, 'I will never do that because if I change and I become a Christian, that will mean that Hitler won the war after all.' ”

Frieda decided to change her religion, for safety purposes only. She walked into a church and asked to see the pastor.

"All I had on my mind was that I wanted a piece of paper telling people that I was a Gentile. So he said to sit down, so I sat opposite him. Then he looked at me and said, 'I’m going to ask you a question, and you can only answer the question with a yes or with a no.’ I said, 'Okay.' He said, 'Do you believe it?' And I looked him straight in the face and was like, 'No, I don’t believe it.' He said, 'Would you like to know about it? Would you like to study it?' I said, 'Yes, of course.' But all I was thinking about was that piece of paper."

The pastor introduced Frieda to Elizabeth, a woman from the church.

"She started with Jesus and Joseph and the stable, and all these things that made no sense to me whatsoever. I thought she’d lost it! I said, 'I thought you were an intelligent person. How can you believe this nonsense?' "

Elizabeth asked Frieda to read Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 in her free time.

"So I kept reading and I came to the sixteenth verse and it says,'They pierced my hands and my feet.' And I just let out one big yell, 'Aahhh! That’s Jesus!' I was all alone in a little room. There was nobody there to twist my arm. Boom, I just saw that that was Jesus."

'I sat down and said, 'How could I have lived all these years without that?' It’s like coming out of a dark hole into the light. I never knew that he was called the light of the world. I knew nothing. Then I went to Isaiah 53 and just like that, I understood every word. So I called Elizabeth and she raced over. We went over Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, and she expounded to me what it all meant. I was just instantly saved, just like that!"

That was over 60 years ago. These days, Frieda spends her time creating beautiful paintings and tapestries. She’s also the only woman I’ve met, over 90, with her own blog. 

Frieda says that she forgave the Nazis a long time ago.

"You cannot ever forget that you saw your mother and father with bayonets to their backs being taken away by the Nazis. It’s impossible. You just cannot forget that."

Her prayer now is for the Lord to use her experiences and life to share the power of His transforming love.

"When I went for the first time to Israel in 1987, all I asked the Lord for was to be a servant. He has answered my prayer. He has made me a servant, telling people about the miracles He has done and is still doing," she says.


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