Adam Frieda (Bauer)

Adam, Frieda On November 20, 1942, a young woman stood at the entrance to the home of Frieda Adam (née Bauer) in Berlin. Adam, a soldier’s wife and mother of three young children, recognized her instantly as the seamstress Erna Puterman. The unexpected caller was greatly distraught. The day before her mother had disappeared from their flat without a trace. After several hours of hectic and agonizing searching she discovered the reason: her beloved mother had been arrested on the street by the Gestapo. Her daughter would never see her again. Erna was at a complete loss as to what to do. Should she turn herself in, too? Adam forbade Erna to consider this. She spontaneously offered to hide her former colleague in her home. At great personal risk, Adam concealed her Jewish friend for two-and-a-half years, maintaining her, as well as her own three children, on the meager monthly allowance of a soldier’s wife. In 1944, her soldier-husband demanded that Adam get rid of the unwanted visitor. Adam, with the help of her sister, located an alternative hideout at a known anti-Nazi’s house. Erna Puterman survived the war together with her brother. On December 14, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Frieda Adam as Righteous Among the Nations.