Harry Buisman *1945
We lived at Elandsgracht 87. My parents owned a bookstore there. When my mother heard from a customer that there was a party on Dam Square, she closed the shop, put me, a three-week-old baby, in the stroller, and walked to Dam Square. My three-year-old sister sat on the edge of the stroller. We were on Vijgendam, and when the shooting started, we tried to escape, but she couldn’t get the stroller over the fence. Two boys helped her. She fled via Oude Hoogstraat and rang a doorbell at a house on Oudezijds (Voor- or Achter)burgwal because she wanted to feed me. Fortunately, she was allowed to. After a while, she walked back home via Kloveniersburgwal, Rokin, Vijzelstraat, and Prinsengracht.
Another interesting fact is that my future mother-in-law was also on Dam Square and was lifted through a window at the Bijenkorf department store by bystanders to open the door from the inside so that people could take shelter there.
January 2025
