My mother-in-law, Dieuwertje Onrust-Lust (1925), was born and raised in the Nieuwmarktbuurt, a rather poor area of Amsterdam. Her parents Pieter (1895) and Grietje (1900) ran a diary store in the Keizersstraat. Among its customers were many Jews, most of whom perished during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands (1940-1945).
In 2008, my mother-in-law told me she still guarded something that a Jewish customer had entrusted to her father “for when he would return”. Nor this gentleman, nor his wife ever came back to claim their possessions. As Dieuwertje’s family knew that the couple had been childless, they did not know what to do with the possessions but to keep them, though they gradually lost their value as time went by. When Pieter died the possessions were divided among his four children, three of whom eventually lost or, in one case, sold their share. My mother-in-law always kept hers and eagerly agreed when I proposed to find the righful inheritor of her father’s Jewish customers.
First of all I found out who the persons were that entrusted their possessions to the Lust family. Dieuwertje remembered the family name of the Jewish gentleman, Dreese; that he was of her father’s age and that he was a market salesman. Her sister Greet (1924) remembered that the first name of Mr Dreese was Barend and that he lived, with his wife, in the Sint Antoniebreestraat.
With this information I was able to find the file of Mr Dreese in the database of the Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands. Barend Dreese was born in Amsterdam on October 17 1885. Dieuwertje had been right; Mr Dreese was exactly as old as Pieter had been. Barend Dreese lived in the Sint Antoniebreestraat 16 with his wife Rosa Dreese-Knoop, born in Amsterdam on October 22 1886. They both perished in the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland on (as is estimated) June 4 1943, having reached the age of 57 and 56 years respectively.
The archive of the city of Amsterdam provides us with additional information. In 1921, Mr and Ms Dreese lived in the Manegestraat 2 (first floor). Subsequently, they moved to the Oude Dijkstraat 19 (third floor) and (in 1929 it seems) to the third floor of the Sint Antoniebreestraat 16 (second floor). In 1923 they were given a permit to sell various products (“artikel ongeregeld”) at the Nieuwmarkt on mondays, wednesdays, thursdays and fridays. The permit was renewed in 1940, just after the start of the German occupation. From 1931 onwards, Mr and Ms Dreese had a stand at the Westerstraat on mondays and from 1940 onwards, they also had a permit to sell underwear at the Waterlooplein. Thanks to these permits, we have pictures of Mr and Ms Dreese.
Mr and Ms Dreese did not have children. But the niece of Rosa Dreese-Knoop survived the war. Having read my advertisement in the Jewish weekly NIW, her grandson contacted me. More than half a century later, the possessions of Mr and Ms Dreese finally found their way back to their family.
This is an ongoing project. Since its start, I have made dozens of drawings, serigraphs and oil paintings related to the history. I will continue to do so.
Mixed media, 50x65 cm, 2009
Oil painting, 65x90 cm, 2010
Serigraph, 60x70 cm, 2009