Information About Adriana Bierma

Memories

Memories are based on documents, family lore or personal experiences. They give more information about a person, but are not necessarilly complete or correct.

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Grandma Smits had lost her parents at a very young age, she was more or less dumped with her sister-in-law. That sister-in-law insisted that Grandma would call her “madam.” She felt very exploited there. She worked in the household for a few years, and in that time she met grandfather. A friend rang the bell to say “can Sjaantje come and play” and grandfather would already be waiting in a nearby alley.

Her half-sister had a “fine iron shop” (a washing and ironing servide); my father learned to iron shirts from them. And I learned it in turn from my father, not from my mother.

When grandma was old, and I’m not sure how well she was mentally at that time, she often talked about hiding in a pit. What I understand is that she lived in the Transvaal neighborhood as a child when Pretoriusstraat was still under construction, and that there were construction sites in which she could hide in order to alone and have quiet.

She didn’t have it easy during the war either. At one point there was a raid in the neighborhood. There was a group of Jews who needed to be watched, and a German had told her, “You must make sure that those Jews don’t run away.” Grandma then told him she needed to watch her children, so she was able to avoid this, but she experienced very directly how neighbors were arrested and taken away.

Grandma Smits was able to knit very well. When she was older she could not quite keep up with the grandchildren growing, and she would make a sweater or something that was much too small. Grandma Smits also once knitted the gray kitty for me. It used to have a tail, but that has been long lost.

Early on they had a cat, I think it was called Tobias. Grandma had the litter box under the counter. She used shredded old newspapers in it. They also had a dog (yellowish color, a shepherd like). It was called Herta.

Grandma always gave me a “sandwich with beams,” that was a sandwich with brown sugar with hard lumps. And a sandwich always went to the seagulls, out of the window. The seagulls then caught the food from the air. Nothing more fun than feeding the seagulls together with grandma.

Grandma had incredibly long hair. She always wore that put up. But if you stayed overnight, you could brush it. It reached her bottom.

Grandma had skin with a lot of freckles, especially when she was at the camp. Later I found out that I have her skin. Now (a little older) I have just as many freckles. It must have skipped a generation, as my father always easily turned brown when he was outside in the sun.

Grandma sometimes spoke about the past. She came from a large family, they didn’t have it easy. She had problems at school. She had to write with her right hand even though she was left-handed. If that didn’t go well (causing stains) she had to write with a stick as a punishment.

I also vaguely remember that she said that grandfather initially had his eye on Aunt Agaath, but Aunt Agaath was interested in another man, from a different faith. So that relationship had to be broken up. Aunt Agaath was never married and grandfather married grandmother.