Lied van verzet
translation Johan Meijer, Diete Oudesluijs, Rimco Spanjer, Sander Stotijn
Publisher Boom, Amsterdam
www.boom.nl
ISBN 9789024463244
On May 30, 2025, Rimco Spanjer, one of the translators of the autobiography “Sag nie, du gehst den letzen Weg,” gave a lecture on the compelling life story of the famous and decisive artist couple Lin Jaldati, stage name of Lien Brilleslijper (1912-1988) and Eberhard Rebling (1911-2008).
She grew up in Amsterdam’s Jewish corner; he in Berlin, expelled to the Netherlands in the 1930s because of his Communist sympathies. During the lecture, music played by Eberhard Rebling and Yiddish songs sung by Lin Jaldati resounded through the Albert Vogel Hall.
A month before the outbreak of World War II, they performed twice at the Haagsche Kunstkring a program consisting of piano pieces, dance and Yiddish songs. They had met in a community house of artists on The Hague’s Bankastraat and fell in love. During the German occupation they went into resistance and were later forced to go into hiding with their immediate families in villa ‘t Hooge Nest in Naarden. They were betrayed with tragic and heartbreaking consequences. In May 1945, Jaldati and Rebling found each other again. They began a new, musical life with Jaldati as performer and eventually as Grande Dame of the Yiddish song, accompanied by Rebling on the piano. They performed all over the world, eventually emigrating to Berlin. The bond with Holland remained intense.
“Try to live yourself and not be lived. We tried to fight against stupidity and racial hatred with our performances. Probably we underestimated our influence. Nevertheless, I believe in a better society … My hope is that people will become wise, that they will no longer solve their conflicts with weapons, but in a peaceful way.” (quoting Eberhard Rebling, 1990)
You can watch the lecture back at the link below, a video report by Dennis Simonis, City Journal Haagse Dingen:
reading Song of Resistance, Haagse Kunstkring May 30, 2025
