Photographer Puck Voute was born on April 11 1911 in The Hague, with the birth names Helena Wilhelmina Maria Elisabeth. Her father was a journalist, Cornelis Pieter Louis Berend Voûte, born June 15 1880 in Amsterdam, as son of Cornelis Johannes Voûte and Hermine Francoise Elisabeth Zweerts.
Puck’s mother was Helena Maria Catharina Voûte, born May 17 1886 in Madiun, East-Indië, as daughter of Christoffer Voûte (1841-1904) and Maria Antoinetta de Dieu Stierling (1854-1896)(born July 29 1854 on board of the vessel Europa, in a small galley). Her parents married April 26 1910 in The Hague (license 616) and the marriage was cancelled by divorce on March 27 1927. During the marriage five daughters were born.
Puck’s mother remarried on October 2 1928 in The Hague with Goverdus Henricus ’s Gravensande Pannekoek, literary and journalist.
Puck Voûte and Wolfgang Suschitzky, Photo used by kind permission of Hanneke Suschitzky-van der Baan
Puck married on March 22 1934 in Hampstead, London England with the cineast Wolfgang Suschitzky, born August 29 1912 in Vienna Austria, they met each other during their work as photographer. She was known under the name Anna. Her husband Wolfgang was a socialist, Jewish ancestors, and concluded that their was no future for him in Austria and left in 1934 to London and moved in by his sister Edith. After their marriage Puck and Wolfgang moved to Amsterdam were he worked as photographer
The marriage was short-lived. Puck left him and he said about that: ‘ it was a lucky thing, if I stayed I was probably dead’. Although she was pregnant, the couple divorced on April 3 1936. Their son Jan Otto was born a few months later on July 9 1936; he died April 1 2009.
Wolfgang returned to England and remarried with Ilona Donath and was father of Peter, July 25 1941 in London, cineast, and son Misha, producer classical music.
Wolfgang Suschitzky died October 7 2016 at the age of 104.
Puck lived during her marriage at the Prinsengracht 192 and after the divorce in the Beethovenstraat 9.
For her, the Second World War, had been a very traumatic period because her great love, lawyer and member of the Resistance, Hans Polak, had been arrested and never returned(it was in the beginning of the war).
Hans Polak, Puck Voûte and Jan Suschitzky. Photo used by kind permission of Hanneke Suschitzky – van der Baan
Between 1952 and 1958 she stayed in Bloemendaal because of psychological problems and returned afterwards to her house in the Beethovenstraat.
During a short period she has lived in Otterlo en Renkum, possibly close by her mother, who died on November 15 1979 in Lunteren.
Puck did never merryd and died at the age of 92, November 12 2003. She is burried at Zorgvlied together with her son.
The pictures that were in the possession of her son Jan, were disposed after his dead in 2009, by his widow, to the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam. These pictures are made during the War and contains images about famished people by a doctor, the arrest of Germans at the Nieuwe Zijds Voorburgwal,shortly before the shooting of May 7 1945.
The pictures below are made by Puck Voûte on May 7 1945 at the Dam and surrounding area.
