Abraham de Wilde came from a family of eight children. His parents, Levie de Wilde and Rachel Baars, had a grocer’s shop on Rapenburgerstraat. Levie de Wilde and his family lived on Sint Antoniebreestraat, at no. 90, ‘buurt C’, in Amsterdam.
Abraham was a clever boy; he skipped the fourth class in primary school. He wanted to be a teacher. But he had to go straight into the diamond business after primary school, since the family could not afford to keep him at school. Abraham became a diamond cutter and had a certain amount of freedom in choosing his work. He had an office at the diamond exchange. But he was not a particularly good businessman and did not do very well in the diamond trade.
Abraham was a generous man who loved children and rarely lost his temper. Except for once when he took his three children to an aunt’s birthday celebration. The children were so startled by the crowd of guests that they fled from the room. One of them, out of nerves, actually sat down on the box of kosher cakes from Snatager. Abraham was furious. He was embarrassed that his children were so shy.
More typical of his character was that whenever anyone said ‘I’ll do my best’, he would answer ‘and no one can do more than their best’.
Although he was no great music lover, he faithfully accompanied his wife to the Concertgebouw, where he often fell asleep.
Abraham was interested in politics and enjoyed reading newspapers and history books. The whole De Wilde family loved reading, and Abraham quite often looked around the living room and said, ‘It looks like a reading museum here’. Abraham also liked playing cards at the diamond exchange – an activity that was looked down on at home. The De Wildes did play cards, but the Snuijf family did not.
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