Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

• Contents
• Map

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

Sure.

"and going to the post office with the letters every day."

Right. [laughs] right, yeah.

"I can do more and I want to learn more." And, as a matter of fact, I wanted a raise for my salary.

[laughs]

So they said, "Well, we give you a little raise, but not much, because we can't pay it." I said, "Yes, but can't you pay my fare from--with the train every day, because that is half of my salary, you take, uh, what--which I have to pay myself." They said, "We will talk it over." And then in a few days, they said, "No, we have no money for it." So I went home. And I talked to my teacher who gave me my lessons, because I--when I went to uh, uh, the Consulate, I said--in that time, it was ...48 already. We had ???...

Uh-huh.

from Israel. He came as an um, the Consul and Lillie Abrahms came with him as his private secretary with an um, a typewriter only with Jewish letters.

[laughs] Only in Hebrew.

So she did everything in Hebrew. And the other two did everything in English. So for me, there wasn't much, so--and I couldn't get a lot of a raise and so, so I talked to my teacher, because on Tuesday morning and Thursday morning, I didn't work. I came from one ...til five. But I worked every Sunday morning.

Sunday morning.

Yes.

So was it--okay.

And I wanted to go to school on Tuesday morning and Thursday morning, which I did before. So that was all right. But then the school was nearly finished and I thought, well, I'm a year here and I know all these things. I want to learn more and practice the things I learn and there's no opportunity for me. So I told my uh, teacher. He was the director from that school. And he said, "Well, maybe I will find a job for you, because there is a lot of people who phone me, as the director of this school and I have a lot--the, the good ones I pick out and..."