Saartje Speelman was the youngest of the four children of Koopman Speelman and Judith Kan. She was born in Amsterdam on 2 November 1899 and worked as a lingerie seamsress. Saartje had two brothers, Jacob Abraham and Isaac and an elder siser, Elisabeth. The family however moved already several times to other addresses in Amsterdam and the Koopman Speelman family moved in March 1911 to the Govert Fl…