Miriam Troostwyk - May 28, 1998 and June 3, 1999
Relations with Others in Hiding
Now, you were there for--how long within their house?
I was there from the--with my family from the 7th of March 1943 until we got liberated in April the 16th, 1945. But Edith was already, at the end of October, 1942--October or November, she didn't know exactly.
October or November, what?
End of October '42 or beginning of November '42, they got already hiding.
They had people hiding there.
Uh, they had the six people, they had...
Yeah, they had the other six.
David, Rosa, Laynee, Gita, Elsa and Edith.
Amazing, okay. Uh, what, what was it--what would you do there--I mean, what was a day like?
We had a wonderful time. It sounds horrible, but we, we were together. And the family holds all together, okay--the men were playing chess and the--and they taught--uh, we were playing them, domin...with that uh, round uh, it's a board with that round um, wooden things and you have to--it's easier than, um...
Than chess?
than chess.
Checkers, you mean?
Checkers. That is what I did with my brother-in-law and with everybody. And the men were playing uh, chess.
Well, was anyone worried that...
And they were talking and we made big dinners in um, and the women were talking about big dinners what they are going to make after...
But you didn't have them when you were in hiding?
No.
No, right.
So when you are hungry, you talk about how you make Loxshin and her recipe was better than the other one and...
When, when um, when you were there, did anyone worry that someone was going to betray you, that uh, ???
No, we were, everybody had his prayer of his own, for his--himself. They did not very much talk about that. I slept in another room, was a little bit bigger than that from Edith's, was also one--the same uh, window. I slept in one bed with my mother. Let's say the room was like this, I slept here with my mother. My brother-in-law and sister slept here. Here was the window--no. I slept here with my mother, here was the window and here, next to the window, my um, sister and brother-in-law slept, with two beds. Um, one bed, one big bed. It was not king sized because it was not so big. But--and I slept with my mother here. And on the floor slept an elderly couple, they're from Vienna, after 1944.
Huh, so the...they took in still more people.
Yes, they took in four people...
Now...
because that was family too. And they had to evacuate uh, Arnhem, all the people had to, to go somewhere else. And the people who hide that four people had to leave their home.
Uh-huh.
So they contacted David, David Santcroos and David Santcroos asked him uh, the--Mr. and Mrs. Vandenberg and they said, they can come to us.
Now, how did they contact him?
I don't know, because they didn't have telephone.
It could have been the Underground, I suppose, you know.
I have not the slightest idea how they did it.
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