Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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

And how did you meet um, your husband, at this time?

Yeah, I was seventeen and I wanted to go and--in an office to work. I want to earn my own money. So I said, well, my English, I made ...til in high school, the highest I can get. So I had all my uh, exams ???. In German, I had it too; in Dutch, I had it too. The mathematic, Alge...Algebra and...

Uh-huh.

And ??? uh, I don't know how you say it with that uh, I skipped it. I said, "I don't..."

Algebra?

Yeah. It's too much uh, and what can I do later with it? And, leave me alone, I want to do my uh, languages and uh, because I want to earn money. I didn't want that my brother-in-law pay such a lot for me.

Uh-huh.

And I didn't want that they say, ...You see, you have to learn. We do our best and, and what are you doing?" I didn't want to hear that. I thought, I'm going to look after myself. Good. And um, then I--so I was still the highest grade in that school, but I did all the exams for my um, languages and for ??? how do you say that, geometry?

Geometry, uh-huh.

And um, um, some history um, um, not about Holland, about kings from uh,--let's say from uh, the 14th or 15th Century until then, but...

Renaissance stuff, yeah.

more from the world...

Uh-huh.

the history, that uh, you got in the high school. And that was better for me, because the youngest started already in the fourth--fifth grade from the public school, which I didn't have. And everybody knew that, I thought, okay, that's fine. I will do the other thing. Um, "So where are you going to work?" they said. "What are you doing?" I said, "Well, I want to go to a school where I can learn typing, because I'm very good in my uh, and I feel very secure in my um, um, languages. And uh, I want to learn uh, stenography." How do you say that here?

Stenography, uh-huh.

Yes, in English, in German and in, in uh, Dutch. And uh, typing and um, handle correspondence, trade correspondence in English and in German...

German...

and Dutch. And I want to work in an office. So in the Jewish News, I saw that they were asking on, on--at Israeli Consulate in Amsterdam, somebody to learn the whole office, how you do it, from the beginning.

Someone who knows Dutch?

Yeah.