Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

• Contents
• Map

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

So one came in the room.

Is this, is this a soldier, I thought by my--is this a soldier? He--in my eyes he was maybe twenty years, maybe he was a little bit older, I don't know.

And what did he say?

Nothing.

He just looked in and then, and then left?

Sit still or something, maybe, I don't know.

Yeah. And then he left?

No, don't--then there came a few more and then--okay and they went away.

And you and you...

But that was already--the tanks were already in, in the town, but they were still shooting.

And you were liberated at that point?

Yeah...

And you...

but nobody went out because it was house from house. So there were still Germans hiding behind trees, be--in a house, in corners.

Uh-huh.

So we didn't go out. The sixteenth of April, when we heard the tanks are going through the main street, everybody went out. I was the only one who stayed at home.

Why? You didn't trust them?

I was knitting...

[laughs] You didn't trust them.

And I said, they will go back again. I am scared. I don't go out. But do--can you imagine, I didn't think, from everybody goes out, so when they find you--then they find you too, but I thought, then, I don't get out, [laughs] they won't find...

At least you'll be fine [laughs].

Yeah, something like that.

What was your feeling...

I don't know what I believe.

when you were liberated? What did...

Well, the first day, when everybody went out, there was still shooting a little bit in, in the street. I was sitting and was knitting. I stayed at home. And I asked everybody and Adie said, "I don't know why you don't go out. All the Canadians are there and there is a big uh, um, everybody is looking." I said, "No, before I come to the main street, they shoot me maybe."

[laughs].

I'm not going. So the next day I went out.

Do you think that that's the kind of mindset that saved your life, is this wariness, this, um...

Maybe, but how can it save my life when everybody was out already?

Well, [laughs] you never...

But they say...

you never put on a backpack?

No.

Right?

No.

That was um, so you're...

I even didn't try it. I said, "I'm not going to wear it. I see it in the corner."

So you were liberated, whatever that means.

Yeah.