Esther Posner - March 11, 1986
Going into Hiding
The way we went into hiding is uh, this woman who was not Jewish, who was not really working for the underground, but somehow she, she, she got some false papers for us and she got a hearse--she rented a hearse and took us by hearse because the uh, train station in Amsterdam was so dangerous. There were so many German soldiers around there and Amsterdam in general--there were just too many Nazis around. So she took us by hearse to a small town. We got out of the hearse and that's where we got on the train and took the train. Uh, my parents had, of course, taken their, their yellow star off their clothes and we traveled late at night.
This was in 1943.
Yeah, this was in May '43, like around the 25th, something like that. And when we got to Enschede we were met by the Mos's. And first he took us back to his wife--to his home where we met his wife and then she took us by bicycle to where we were staying. And the people where we were staying--husband and wife uh, ??? and--I forgot--Kleinjan was their last name. And they had two little children, a boy and a girl, and they really welcomed us with open arms. They, they were--they seemed very happy that we had gotten there.
Did you pay them, do you know?
Um, I think we had to pay for, you know, we paid for our food, it wasn't free. Uh, I believe we, you know, I believe we did.
But nothing beyond just expenses.
No, no, no nothing beyond expenses, no, nothing at all. I think when--in those early days when we first came there, no one had any idea of just--wasn't--what was going to be involved. When we got there uh, they lived in a, in a home that had--on the main floor was a, a living room and behind that, a, a kitchen. And upstairs were, I think, three bedrooms. They were small rooms. And then there was another staircase and that went up to the attic. Now the husband uh, husband and wife had one bedroom, the children had another bedroom and we were given a third bedroom. And that door was kept locked and nobody knew we were in there.
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