I was 2,5 years old and stood at the corner Nieuwendijk/Dam near the ice cream car were I just had one. Immediately my ice cream fell out of my hand and I was very disappointed. People ran away or stood behind objects. I saw the shooting from the Groote Club (I know that name now, previous it was the place were German soldiers were and German flags hung). It was their fault that my ice cream fell out of my hand and I walked towards them. My mother stayed behind the ice cream car.
Walking on the Dam, between the running people, I walked against the stream, suddenly a man picked me up and took me in his arms, wrapped a coat around me and ran in the direction of the Nieuwendijk were I lived in those days. My mother also arrived there, but nowhere inside was a hiding place, the place was full. We were refused.
That man saw that there was space beneath the billiard table, he kicked in a window, my mother crept inside and took me by the hand and we had our hiding place. The man disappeared in the direction of the Dam. Did he call for assistance or would he search for a hiding place? I don’t know. In my memory was all the time “a slash”.
Afterwards, in a amateur film from Bert Haanstra, I understood that the “slash” were people behind the lamp post who were taken cover behind each other. During my “mission lost ice cream” I was so focused on the” window on the corner” of the Groote Club, the window were I always keep looking if I’m in Amsterdam. In my memory I thought that the people were sleeping on the street. I did not realize then that I walked along wounded and dead people because I was so focused on those angry people at that window to tell them how nasty they were. I was lucky somebody picked me up, and brought me in safety. This occasion is still with me and of course later on I understood what really happened.