Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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

Right.

And I will give them lessons. And we--they will survive and they will be uh, good with us. We'll hide them very well. So the whole family said to me, "We have--we found something for you. You go with Guenter there." I said, "I'm not going with Guenter, I go with you. We are all going hiding or we are all going to die, but I am not leaving my mother, my sister or my brother-in-law. No way, I don't do it! Or alive or die, but we will stay together!"

And you were eleven at this point...

Yeah.

well, twelve...

And I said and "This is what I have to say about it and I'm not talking about it anymore!" And that was it. Okay. So Guenter went to uh, Tante--Onslip and Tante Shietska. And he survived and he was a cow...a cow man and he...

A cow...coward?

Yes. And uh, he had a good life there. And he lives now in Florida, retired with his uh, wife. And uh, he came--every time when he comes to Holland he goes to see them and they ask for me.

Hm.

And I always said--he always said, "It's so terrible that you didn't come with me. Because it had--we--it would have been so nice and I would have married you after that!" I said, "Well, thank you, that's very kind, but I didn't want to go. And uh, then there was a family coming to us after I always said I want to go hiding. Don't let me show this, I don't want to hear about it! Let us go hiding, because you tell at the table when we are eating the most terrible things from the family. You run away from Germany, so why don't you do anything? Give it a try." And...

Now, you, you...

they said, "But they have no address--I have no a...address." I said, "I want to go to Edith's." Edith, her--uh, uh, uh, David, David Santcroos, is the dancing teacher who married Rosa, he knows everything. He was like a hero for me.

Hm.

He knows everything. He knows all the people there. And the whole family--mishpocheh went there, why can't we be there? We are very good friends. Ask them--him. So the family from us said, "I, I don't want to ask him because he has so much on his head with his ten family uh, people." I said, "But you can ask him. Okay?" Then there was another couple coming to visit us. And it was maybe Friday night, it was uh, Gentile people. They lived in--near Soesterberg. Soesterberg is near Amersfoort.

Okay, here's Amersfoort.

Yeah.

And here's Soes...

Here's Soes...