Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Miriam Troostwyk - May 28, 1998 and June 3, 1999

Um, and do you remember at what point there were maybe changes in your life--laws?

Well, slowly it changed, of course...

How did it, how did it...

because it was war. Um, in 1942, I think, uh, I was in the fourth grade, going over to the fifth.

Uh-huh.

I went to school, I was six--in May I was six, so I think in September I went to school, for six years. Uh, seven, eight, nine years, in fourth grade.

That's a difference of system.

Fourth class.

Fourth class, okay.

Fourth class.

Okay.

There are six classes in Holland. And from then you go to a other school, you go to um, um, lyceum or a gymnasium...

Or--yeah.

or a ???.

Or a tech...or a technical school.

I don't--it's different than here. And you have to go--the ??? takes four years there, but it doesn't--it--you--connect with the university. When you go five years ???, you can go to university when you go six years to gymnasium.

You go to university.

You go to, yeah. So in the public school, after four years, in the summer holiday uh, the teacher from the fifth grade came to--over to our house, with a very uh, sad face. I remember that very well. He said, "I have some books, you can teach your daughter history and Dutch and everything. She is not allowed to go to school anymore, not to public schools, only Jewish schools. There are no Jewish schools in Amersfoort. In Amsterdam there are Jew...Jew...possibly Jewish school, but not in Amersfoort." It was in 1942, I think.