I
was living with my parents in Amsterdam in Holland and still at University
in 1942 when the Germans came. I was newly married in August of that year
and was hoping to join my husband, who was teaching in the north of Holland,
but being jewish and thus having to wear a yellow 'Star of David' I had
to get permission. I was waiting for my travel permit, but never received
the final papers. My husband was arrested in December of that same year.
I never saw him again.
We heard about jews being taken away and where they went, so I decided it was best for me to disappear. I got to Amersfoort and stayed with a student friend for a while, but with frequent house searches and the problem of finding food without proper ration cards, it seemed right to go and stay with a family where an extra mouth was not such a burden and I could help.
False
papers such as ration cards and identity cards were a must. My sister
belonged to a resistance group, specialising in providing altered stolen
identity cards to people who needed them and with these I could dare to
go out on a bicycle sometimes - no tyres of course, but I used old garden
hose round the wheels to soften the ride a bit - and by being careful
about army patrols I might trade some things with farmers in the countryside.
The family managed to hide a radio and some batteries so we could listen to the BBC, but to save on batteries we adapted a treadle-operated sewing machine to generate electricity - I suppose you can call it 'treadle-power'. We all took our turn in the evenings, treadling away so we could see what we were doing.
The
house searches continued and I would need to spend time hiding behind
a sliding panel and perched on the house rafters, where we hoped the soldiers
wouldn't look. I can tell you so many things about the events of those
years - some funny, some not at all funny.
Clara
Turner
March 2005
Clara
now lives in England and you can write
to her for more information
