J.M. Stinis - van Straten 1937

Jenneke Maria Stinis-van Straten

The years 1937 - 1945

Q: Let’s go back to your life. I heard that Uncle Jan died in 1937?

A: He died September 13, 1937 two days after my mother’s birthday. We have something with the month September I believe. Uncle Jan never told us something but he had some problems with his heart and he died after having a heartattack in Rotterdam where he worked. We had a problem again. Uncle Jan paid almost everything for us. Betsy left the house already. She was nerve patient and the house became too big for the two of us. Two other brothers of my mother, Jo and Reinier, continued to pay for my lessons and we also moved to the second floor of a house in the Adelheidstraat. I got a job as well. We sold cafe, tea and wine. My boss was a German dentist (Jewish) and I worked there till Germany rolled into Polen in September 1939.

Family Quast

Family Quast 2

Some photos of the whole family Quast

Q: The beginning of World War 2?

A: The beginning of it yeah. During that time I had troubles with my bronchitis again and my doctor advised me not to go back to work anymore.

Q: But you got another job early 1940?

A: I started a solicitation by the Firm Merwestein, a firm that imported German equipments for the beer- and limonade industry. I got the job.

Q: What did you do there?

A: I typed letters in German. In the meantime I also got my diploma in shorthand in Dutch, German and English and commercial correspondence in the same languages. And then it became May 10, 1940 when World War 2 also hit Holland. The first night a German airplane crashed into our street. A lot of houses were damaged and there was a big fire. We were only permitted to enter the street when you had permission of an officer at the front. Later that morning I got the shock of my life when the boss of the office pasted me sitting behind the wheelchair of his car and I found out that he was a NSB’er! He was the only one, even his wife was anti. The chef was fine and we got the opportunity to get some wine or limonade as a trade for a machine. But that was at the beginning of the War. Later that stopped, because there were no orders anymore.

Q: But you got some food at the office too?

A: There was food available. We received it from a special kitchen. There were also problems with the heath. We had some tickets for coals but there were no coals! So we lived in the kitchen before the heath to get warm and there was the only possibility to cook something as well. On Sunday we spent our time by another family member Aunt Bertha Roos. Her sister, aunt Ad Vlieg, had a big bindery in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht with a whole garden with vegetables and so on.

Q: Where there any other things you did during the War?

A: Not really. There wasn’t much to do. Food became really a problem. My mother became sick and we became extra food tickets. Early 1945 we visited our doctor for some injections against every possible illness you could mention. It was a critical situation, because the English pilots started to bomb our neighborhood because there were a lot of German people around. In the Haagsche Bos in Wassenaar were German V2 bombs situated and obvious the English pilots tried to hit them. And then on March 3, 1945 they made the biggest mistake of the whole War.

Q: I guess, you mean the big bombing?

A: Yes. Bombs were falling all over the Bezuidenhout were we lived, it was a "mistake’, but I’ll never forget it. It was a Saturdaymorning and I helped another family moving their belongings to our house when everything started. When everything was "safe" again for a short matter of time, I walked to my own house to see or I could find my mother. I crossed a burning church and a big whole in the street. Luckily halfway my mother walked up to me, but houses were burning as far as you could look. With the only things we saved from our house we started to walk away from all this, but we had no idea where we could go to when I got the idea: "Let’s go to some friends of Uncle Jan in Rijswijk". That family (Vollgraff) had a mother, father and a son Carel whom is two years younger as I am. When we arrived there, we were not the only people who made the trip. Mr. Vollgraffs sister with her husband were there and also the mother and housekeeper. And we had no house either. We heard later that day that our house was burned as well.

Q: It seems to me that the fire recently in Enschede brought all these memories back again, didn’t it?

A: Yes indeed. The only difference is that we could expect such a bombing every day and in Enschede it happened just without any warning, but I know exactly the people must feel there right now. Losing everything you have especially your special memories like photos etc. (That’s why there are not so much photos of me available on this site of my youngest years. I lost these photos as well. Luckily, some relatives received some of the photos in the past and I got these back over the years, but I still miss a lot of them, so if you are able to help me, please write or e-mail us. Thanks in advance)

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