Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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

Kennkarte

So he had, he had a Kennkarte, is that what it was?

A what?

A Kennkarte--oh, no, no, an Arbeitskart, a work card.

Well, we had a letter like this.

Uh-huh.

And it was typed, that when there is a Razzia we should show it and...

They'll leave you alone.

Yeah, but--they leave us alone because we are working for the Germans for Russia, to put the fur in. And there was a big eagle and around like a dollar...

Uh-huh.

uh, stamp, with the swastika in it.

And did you wear a star?

Yes. Everybody was wearing, wearing a star.

Yeah, when--do you remember when that started?

And my uncles had that stamp too in, in--because they were...

The furriers.

And they said, "You can get it too, you have to work for them."

I see.

And uh, we had to pay 1,000 gilders for that stamp...

Who did you pay?

I remember.

Do you remember who it is?

To the SS.

To the SS.

To somebody--to the men who, who signed it.

And this was a German.

It was a German...

It wasn't...

an SSer.

It wasn't the Joodse Raad?

No. But you know what he did? He put it--money from--in his pocket. And the SS found it out. And uh, in uh, 1943, it was false. So um, there was a Razzia in Amsterdam and they took my two uncles with their wives. And my uh, uh, uh, cousins--two cousins, little cousins in my age--a year older, we always played together, went to shul--youth shul together. And I slept there on the weekends and they came over to me and my uncle bought me for my birthday, which I will never, ever forget um, a watch. And we--the whole family went to buy that watch. And look how beautiful what you have for your birthday. And I was very proud. And they picked them up to go to Vught.


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