Lin Jaldati's Real Name: Rebekka Brilleslijper

Quick answer: Lin Jaldati was the stage name of Rebekka Brilleslijper (known in the family as Lientje). She was born on December 13, 1912, in Amsterdam, and died on August 31, 1988, in East Berlin. She was a dancer and Yiddish singer, a Holocaust survivor, and one of the last people to see Anne Frank (Forward; Anne Frank House research; Huygens ING lexicon).

Amsterdam to Yiddish song

The eldest child of Joseph and Fijtje Brilleslijper, she danced with Dutch companies in the 1930s and learned Yiddish to join immigrant cultural clubs. In 1937 she met German pianist Eberhard Rebling, a refugee from Nazi Berlin; they married in 1942 and built evenings of Yiddish song and dance. Her sister Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper was also active in resistance networks (Joods Amsterdam; Huygens biography).

Camps and Anne Frank

During the German occupation she was deported; she survived Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. At Bergen-Belsen she and her sister were among the last people to see Anne Frank and Margot Frank before the Frank sisters died in early 1945 — a fact documented in postwar testimony and Anne Frank House research materials. After liberation she wrote "Memories of Anne Frank," later included in commemorative volumes (Anne Frank House; Forward).

East Berlin and world tours

In 1952 Jaldati, Rebling and their daughters Kathinka and Jalda moved to East Berlin. In the GDR she became a primary interpreter of Yiddish song on state radio and stages, presenting Jewish repertoire inside a socialist cultural framework. From the 1950s–70s she toured the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Vietnam and other countries — unusual geography for a Yiddish artist, documented by scholars such as David Shneer (Forward). She died in East Berlin in 1988; memorial plaques in Germany mark her residence and grave with Rebling.