The winter of 1942 was the coldest on record in Holland - 27 below zero. It was bitterly cold. The water in the pipes froze, causing the pipes to crack. We used to wrap rags, newspapers, anything we had, around the pipes to stop the water from freezing. We didn't have enough warm blankets so Mum put layers of newspaper between the blankets for extra warmth.
It was also around this time that Jews had to start wearing a yellow Star of David with the word 'Jew' on it. Overnight several children appeared at school with yellow stars sewn on their dresses and we all wanted one.

In 1943 the Germans decreed that all men between the ages of 18 and 55 had to work where they were sent, mostly in ammunition factories in Germany. My father was sent to a forced labour camp in Brunswick, Germany. Every six weeks he had one week off to go home. When his week's leave was up, he went away and we never saw him again until the war was over. He didn't return to Germany, but went underground. But now there was no money coming in, so Mum had to find work as a cleaning lady and I looked after the housework and the kids.

Late 1943 we heard rumours that the allies had landed in Sicily and that the war would soon be over. We were hoping and praying that it was true. We could hardly buy anything without ration coupons.
Towards the end of that year Amsterdam was bombed several times. We had compulsory blackouts and all windows were covered in black paper at night. Air-raid wardens would patrol the streets to make sure not a beam of light was visible anywhere . During an air-raid the sound of anti-aircraft guns was deafening. In the morning my friends and I would be out looking for shrapnel, and the largest pieces we found we took to school as trophies.

Because the allies were advancing, the Germans burst the dykes in the south of Holland, causing the land to flood with sea water. Nearly 100,000 people had to evacuate. They also evacuated another 300,000 people along the North Sea coast and built huge bunkers. On 3 September the last transport of Dutch Jews, among them Anne Frank and her family, was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.
In the autumn things got worse. On 18 September the South of Holland was liberated and the densely populated North was cut off on all sides. By October we were running out of food. At school, some children had lunch, some didn't. The situation was intolerable, so all schools and shops closed. From now on it was each man for himself, trying to survive. Many didn't make it. They opened up soup kitchens where we could redeem our food coupons.In October 1944 our food rations were cut to half a loaf of bread and one kilo of potatoes per week per person. Once a week the bakery opened. The bread would arrive by horse and cart under armed escort and people queued for hours in the bitter cold to get it. Next gas and electricity were cut off My mother rode her bicycle for miles into the country, taking with her anything of value she could swap for food - my father's suit, her good coat, her wedding ring, bed linen, she swapped it all for a few pounds of flour or dried beans. I cursed the farmer who took Mum's sewing machine, which had taken her three years to save for, and gave her three pounds of dried beans for it.I spent my days with other kids, breaking into empty houses, looking for anything we could steal or take home to burn. I saw people catch rats, cook them and eat them. I saw a group of men killing a horse and cutting it up right there to take the flesh home.
My mates and I walked for miles to the outskirts of town, jumping the ditches on the small farms and stealing or begging a few carrots or potatoes. Sometimes we were chased away by German soldiers or worse still, made to empty our pockets, once I had to hand over my two potatoes which would have provided us with a meal. How we hated them.

Two weeks after my 13th birthday in January the church arranged for the remaining children to go to the country. My sister had already gone, a month before I had taken her to the church hall with a label around her neck which had her name, address and age on it. We had no idea where she was going and we didnt see her again until after the war was over. I didn't want to leave Mum and my brother but with one less mouth to feed they had a better chance to survive, so I went and spent 3 months on a tulip farm in the North of our province. On the 12th of March, after an attack on the Germans by the underground movement, 36 political prisoners were executed in a small park near my home. Anyone on the street at the time was forced to watch.