Miriam Troostwyk - May 28, 1998 and June 3, 1999
Relationships with Town People
What's the next step?
We stayed in um, in the town, in that village, with the people. And everybody said, "Oh, did--have you been hiding?" to everybody. And you had to tell the stories. But I didn't mix with anybody, I didn't speak to them, because I didn't want to talk about it. I was so--um, I pitied myself when I was uh, talking about it. So I thought, they can't understand it. I'm not talking about it. I was never talking about it.
Until when?
Until now.
Until now. [laughs] Do you think I can understand it?
Yes, because you read a lot, you read a lot about it and you heard uh, uh, interviews, did a lot of interviews and, well...
But this--I mean, does Alice understand it?
Who?
Your daughter.
Yes.
She does.
Yeah.
Did you--and you--did you talk to her about it or did you talk to your children about it?
I told her everything.
Everything.
Yes.
When, how old was she?
She was eight years.
She...
But after the war, I had boyfriends when I was in school. We went to dancing lessons and we went out and never talked to anybody about it. But we also went to movies. And then we went with two girls and two boys. We were fifteen and we were--we're in the movie in Amersfoort and there was shooting and uh, they were chasing somebody who was uh, pregnant, that were the Germans, that uh, kind of movie of that.
So you...
And I was crying my head out. And they couldn't understand it. And so I thought, well, I don't uh, if they don't understand it, I'm not talking about it. That is what I was think by myself. We never had a discussion about it. We--and they never asked.
Uh-huh.
So I thought, that's good.
Where were they during the war?
They were not Jewish boys.
...Cause they weren't Jewish, ah.
Nobody was--there--the Jew--there were no Jewish boys, there was nothing in Amersfoort.
I see, I see.
Was nobody.
Uh-huh.
There were maybe two Jewish boys where I was with in Jewish lessons, but they lived far away from us, a half-an-hour walking. And we were not really exactly the same age, one brother was twelve and I was fourteen and that is a big difference. And the one from uh, um, Daniel Magdeburg uh, he was in my age. I think he was fourteen, fifteen, but he was not very strong, he had uh, asthma.
Hm.
And he always had uh, a tube next to his bed, or something, so...
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