Miriam Troostwyk - May 28, 1998 and June 3, 1999
Sister Comes to Holland
But did she come back to Holland with...
Um, in 1939, she came uh, to Holland.
With her husband?
With her husband, ??? to the United States.
Hm.
And uh, they had some uh, tickets for uh, uh, to go--to immigrate to America, they had their visas. And uh, uh, they had--in June they should go with the Queen Mary from uh, Southampton to uh, United States. And they wanted to see uh, to say bye-bye to the family. And then my uh, brother-in-law said, what was that he said, uh, "Do you want to stay in Holland or do you want to go to your aunt in England?" It was a sister from my father. And so she said, uh, "I want to stay all the time in Holland the four weeks." And in that time, the war started, the 10th of May. And it was the luck for my mother and me, otherwise we had gone to camp, because my mother was not able uh, when my father passed away, to uh, survive with me. She didn't know how to do that. She was very sensitive and very old fashioned and she didn't know how to. So they got stuck, but it was the luck for us.
Your sister?
Yeah.
And you all survived? You all survived? Your sister and her husband, you and your mother survived?
Yes. My uh, when my father passed away--they lived in our house--and when my father passed away, he took over the business. He uh, we had a retail fur shop. And he uh, had a big fur business because Leipzig was the fur business. And all my family, from father's side and from my mother-in-law's side, which I knew uh, were in the fur business, that were the two brothers in Amsterdam.
But the, the business was not Aryanized?
What is Aryanized?
Aryan--that, that is, they didn't take the, the business...
They took the business.
They did take it?
Yes, they took everything. It was okay.
And gave it to non-Jews?
Yeah. It's only a business, it's only money.
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