Sonja Barend (Amsterdam, February 29, 1940 –April 11, 2026), was a Dutch television presenter, who is also often referred to in the Netherlands as the “queen of the talk show.”
She appeared on television for more than forty years. At the end of 2006, she stopped making television programs. The Sonja Barend Award is named after her, a prize awarded annually for the best TV interview in the Netherlands.
Barend was born in Amsterdam as the daughter of the Jewish David Barend (1905–1943) and Wilhelmiena Mecheliena Lobach (1912–1993). When she was two years old, her father was taken away by the German occupiers. A year later, he was murdered in the Auschwitz extermination camp. Unaware of this event, she grew up with the surname of her stepfather and only learned the fate of her biological father when she was ten years old.
After attending lower secondary school (mulo), she started working at the Twentsche Bank at the age of fifteen. She later described this period as hell. Barend decided to make more of her life. She attended higher secondary school (hbs) in the evenings and found work through a career guidance agency. That office also worked with broadcasting organizations, which is how Barend eventually entered television.
On April 7, 2012, Sonja Barend spoke on television for the first time about her father Barend. He had been arrested while married to the non-Jewish Wilhelmina Mechelina Lobach. Most mixed-marriage couples escaped deportation.
Her father was able to hide in case of emergency in a space above the upstairs neighbors, a German woman with a sewing workshop. David did not tell his wife where exactly the hiding place was: “it would only be a burden for you.”
Then, in January 1943, the doorbell rang and someone asked Sonja’s mother whether her husband was at home. She felt caught off guard and said “yes.” David Barend could no longer go to his hiding place and was arrested, presumably due to some kind of “violation,” and sent via the Hollandsche Schouwburg to Westerbork and Auschwitz.
His wife fell in love with Harry de Groot and had two sons with him, but could only officially divorce once Barend’s death, at the end of 1944, was certain. Sonja was accepted by her stepfather and knew no better than that her name was Sonja de Groot.
On a birthday calendar belonging to a relative of her father, she once saw “Sonja Barend” listed on February 29. “How funny,” she said, “another Sonja who was born on a leap day.” “But that’s you,” said the aunt.
Sonja died yesterday aged 86
sources
https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/389709/de-vader-van-sonja
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonja_Barend
https://nos.nl/artikel/2610145-televisiepresentator-sonja-barend-86-overleden
History of Sorts 
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