Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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

Mother

Was there ever a time that she rose to the occasion and, and surprised you and showed some sort of insight or energy to, to, to do something that was, was important to keep you alive or anything like, like that?

Oh, my mother was very uh, I uh, how must I say that? She was uh, a real Yiddish mama. [laughs] Yeah.

But you were keeping her alive, it seems to me, you were...

Well, I ??? say...

You had your eyes open, you were watching, you were insisting on going into hiding, you wouldn't go to a concentration camp.

No, my mother was more, "Oh, terrible, what happens and my--will be for my sisters and..." You see, more--she was already mourning about everything.

Uh-huh.

And I was used to it. I said--I, I never said something, I just listened and I thought, well, before we do this, let's give it a try.

Going into hiding?

Yeah.

Okay. So on March 6th--March 7th, 1940...

March 7th, 1943.

...43.

Yes.

You, you moved. You went, you went into--is it to Velp ?

Yeah. And we came in the train. And I saw my neighbor from the Hitler Jugend passing by and...


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