As a girl of about 8 years old, Betty Davids played with the 4-year younger Meijer de Vries, called Max. They lived on the 2nd floor and the de Vries family on the 3rd floor at 64 Waverstraat in Amsterdam.
My mother Betty told me that they talked to each other through an air duct in the toilet and they had a lot of fun.
When my mother had to go to a nursing home in 2019 and I collected all the family documentation, these photos of the De Vries family fell out of one of my mother's photo albums.
It seems as if these photos were carelessly cut out of an album and given in a hurry to my grandmother Ariena Philipse, the wife of my grandfather Isaac Davids.
My mother Betty received from Mietje the mother of Maxje two fabric baskets, filled with silk embroidery thread; one of those baskets is owned by my sister Marina and the other I have. Sometimes I use the silk threads for my art, always with Mietje in my mind so that she and her family are not forgotten.
When they were taken away, my mother gave Maxje here cuddly monkey. She never got over that event.
By Katelijne Davids-Wortel, (artist), daughter of Betty Davids - placed by the editors of the website Joods Monument on 12-12-2022.