Jopie Kamstra-Schnater was the neighbour girl of Jurrianus Lambertus Stad. She read an article in the Noord Hollands Dagblad, June 13 2013, and by her son Kees she came in contact with the Foundation Memorial 2015 for victims of Dam May 7 1945.
Underneath follows her report of that day:
“Together we went to the Dam because the English would come. Everywhere the message buzzed: ‘they’re not coming’. We stood in the middle of the square, when there was suddenly a shot from the Grote Club and everybody ran away, mainly in the direction of the houses between the Nieuwendijk and Damrak.
People walked over each other and we walked over other people, I lost a shoe and my bag. Janus protected me, bend over me and called ‘duck’. Suddenly he said”I’m hit”.
Jopie ran, just like all the other people for her life, stumbling over other people, piles of people and came at the Damrak by a shop were she seeks for cover. She lost Janus.
In the evening she went with her parents to the Binnengasthuis [hospital] were he lay with several bullet wounds, also in the lungs. Janus died that evening at 11:00PM in the Binnengasthuis from his injuries, after he had said to Jopie that he was glad that she was healthy. Janus was 26 years old.
Jopie was almost 21 years old and the oldest daughter in the family of 13 children (a little sister died in 1917, 1,5 year old). She had 5 older brothers, a younger sister and 5 younger brothers.
One of her younger brothers also went with a friend to the Dam.
