Miriam Troostwyk - May 28, 1998 and June 3, 1999
Religious Life
For Shabbos?
For Shabbos...
Uh-huh.
and then Sunday um, let's say about at six o'clock we went home or something like that, or seven o'clock.
How would you go...
I was a little girl.
train?
Uh, I remember when we, when we went to Biessum, I don't know very much about it because I was in that time maybe four years old. But when--then they moved to Amsterdam and I know everything. I was maybe six years, seven years. And we went sometimes by train, because I remember when I was sitting in the train, the, the trees were--I always thinking that the trees were running! And it--I felt a little bit uh, nauseous from it. And sometimes we went with a taxi. In that time the taxis were not so very, very expensive. And there was a man in Amersfoort who drove us then with the taxi too.
Was it a religious family, your family?
Um, we were kosher. In uh, Amersfoort we had--there was a kosher butcher, so it was not so difficult. But that was before the war. And uh, my father--and every Friday night we had um, uh, uh, Shabbos, where they made Shabbos, they'd light the candles and the challah was with uh, they did to challah um, tissue--how do you call it?
The cover?
Over it?
The cover.
Yes. And I went sometimes underneath the challah cover and they ??? just take a little bit. It was very uh, crispy on top of the challah. And my father always uh, [pause] like this--that I remember. And uh, well we had all our yomtov um, with Pesach. My mother was working very hard with red cheeks, always from the attic. She--every Pesach, it uh, uh, um, tell uh, how do you call it? Um, um, ...
Dishes...
the dishes.
Uh-huh.
Had to change and, uh...
Uh-huh.
And I remember we had uh, a lot of extra always for in this water or calcium or--I don't know. They put it in the water, because we were eating a lot of eggs in...
Hard-boiled eggs?
No.
No.
When it was Pesach we were eating always every morning a matzo brei.
Uh-huh.
Which was a matzo with...
A bread you make with eggs?
you bake, yeah. So she made a lot of dishes with eggs. And in that time, nobody knew anything about cholesterol, so everybody had for eight days every morning an egg uh, with the matzo and then she fried it in a little bit oil and she put sugar on top and a glass of tea with lemon.
And cakes? Did she make cakes?
She made pesachdikeh
Sponge cake.
Yes.
A lot of eggs go in a sponge cake.
Yeah. And uh, oh we had gefilte fish every Friday night. It was not gefilte fish, it was sweet fish, sweet uh, that long fish snook or ??? I don't know the name.
Oh, a Dutch--but it's Dutch fish.
It's sweet fish from sweet water.
Uh...
And there, there you made this sweet and sour fish with--the day she cooked it.
So was it uh, your--you would serve a whole fish on a table or was it...
No, that were parts, she--like salmon.
Ah, okay.
And then the sauce was a little bit uh, um, chilled and jelly...
Gelatinized?
Like jelly-like.
Uh...
And that was around it. And then we had chicken of course and uh, she made...
Did you sing? Did you sing?
Plums--always.
And did you sing Zemirot at all?
Uh, after--on Friday night after dinner? No, we did not. We made uh, kiddush and bentschen and, and that is what it was...
And did you go to shul...
what I remember.
on Saturday? Did you go--did you go to shul as well?
Um, that I don't remember.
Okay.
When--before the war. I don't think they went every Shabbos to shul, I don't think so, but always with uh, holidays, with the holiday days.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn