Arnold Troostwijk

"Remember! I always talked a lot about my experiences with my daughter and grandchildren. Never again!"

Name at birth

Arie Troostwijk

Date of birth

07/12/1929

Where were you born?

Hertogenbos, Holland

Where did you grow up?

Den Bosch for the first three years and then we moved to Amsterdam

Name of father, occupation

Salomon Isaac Troostwijk, Dealer in bicycle and automobile parts

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Erna Henriette Vohs, Homemaker

Immediate family (names, birth order)

I am an only child

How many in entire extended family?

My mother had two brothers and my father had three brothers and three sisters and their children, my cousins

Who survived the Holocaust?

Me and one brother of my mother (my uncle) and two brothers and one sister (my uncles and aunt and their children) of my father

My parents and I stayed in Amsterdam until the last razzia (round up). My parents and I were helped by an underground organization called the Paris Dutch Line. This courageous group assisted Allied pilots shot down over occupied Western Europe and political refugees to flee to Spain and Switzerland.

Name of Ghetto(s)

Retief Street

Where were you in hiding?

We fled from Amsterdam to Switzerland by way of Belgium, and France to Lourdes at the foot of the French Pyrenees, back in to Nazi infested France to the Swiss-French border near Geneva. The harrowing trip took three months. We arrived with nothing but the clothes on our backs.

Where did you go after being liberated?

We went back to Amsterdam.

Where did you settle?

In Amsterdam

Occupation after the war

Auctioneer and Appraiser

Spouse

Mirjam Troostwijk-Kerkut, Executive Secretary

What do you think helped you to survive?

Righteous gentiles, G-d, luck, and my father’s good instincts.

What message would you like to leave for future generations?

Remember! I always talked a lot about my experiences with my daughter and grandchildren. Never again!