Riete Sterenberg-Gompertz was born in 1919 in Amsterdam. From a young age she showed a great talent for drawing, which she used not only artistically but also in the service of a higher goal. During the Second World War, Riete played a courageous and crucial role in the resistance. From the house of Tine and Herman Waage on the Merwedeplein – a building that was known in resistance circles as the PBC, the Identity Card Center – she forged countless identity cards. With her skilled hand, she helped many people obtain documents with which they could escape deportation and persecution.
Her resistance work was not without danger. Riete was eventually arrested. As a Protestant Jew, she was deported via Westerbork to Theresienstadt, the notorious concentration camp where many did not survive the war. Riete, however, managed to survive this difficult ordeal and was rescued when the camp was liberated. After the war, she returned to her hometown of Amsterdam.
After this dramatic period, Riete resumed her work as a painter. Her experiences gave her art extra depth and sensitivity, in which she captured figurative subjects, landscapes and still lifes in a personal, sometimes melancholic way. Her work was characterised by a warm use of colour, a loose touch and a great sense of atmosphere and intimacy.
Riete remained friends with Tine Boeke-Kramer (formerly Waage-Kramer) all her life, with whom she worked so closely during the war. This friendship symbolised the unbreakable bond that had been forged in the darkest times.
Sterenberg-Gompertz remained active as an artist and remained engaged with the world around her. She died in 1993, but her life story and her work form a lasting tribute to courage, friendship and artistic dedication.
