Page 48 - English Expedition Class 6

Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees . Jews were required to wear a
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yellow star; Jews were required to turn in their bicycles; Jews were forbidden to use street-cars; Jews
were forbidden to ride in cars, even their own. Jews were required to do their shopping between
3 and 5 P.M.; Jews were required to frequent only Jewish-owned barbershops and beauty parlours;
Jews were forbidden to be out on the streets between 8 P.M. and 6 A.M. Jews were forbidden to
attend theatres, movies or any other forms of entertainment; Jews were forbidden to use swimming
pools, tennis courts, hockey fi elds or any other athletic fi elds; Jews were forbidden to go rowing;
Jews were forbidden to take part in any athletic activity in public. Jews were forbidden to sit in
their gardens or those of their friends aft er 8 P.M.; Jews were forbidden to visit Christians in their
homes; Jews were required to attend Jewish schools, etc. You couldn’t do this and you couldn’t do
that, but life went on.
In the summer of 1941 Grandma got sick and had to have an operation, so my birthday passed
with little celebration. In the summer of 1940 we didn’t do much for my birthday either, since the
fi ghting had just ended in Holland. Grandma died in January 1942. No one knows how oft en I
think of her and still love her. Th is birthday celebration in 1942 was intended to make up for the
others, and Grandma’s candle was lit along with the rest.
Th e four of us are still doing well, and that brings me to the present date of June 20, 1942, and
the solemn dedication of my diary.

SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 1942
Dearest Kitty,
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Our entire class is quaking in its boots . Th e reason,
of course, is the upcoming meeting in which the
teachers decide who’ll be promoted to the next grade
and who’ll be kept back. Half the class is making bets.
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If you ask me, there are so many dummies that about
a quarter of the class should be kept back, but teachers
are the most unpredictable creatures on earth. Maybe
this time they’ll be unpredictable in the right direction for a change.
I get along pretty well with all my teachers. Th ere are nine of them, seven men and two women.
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Mr Keesing, the old fogey who teaches math, was mad at me for the longest time because I
talked so much. Aft er several warnings, he assigned me extra homework. An essay on the subject
‘A Chatterbox’. A chatterbox, what can you write about that? I’d worry about that later, I decided.
I jotted down the assignment in my notebook, tucked it in my bag and tried to keep quiet.
Th at evening, aft er I’d fi nished the rest of my homework, the note about the essay caught my
eye. I began thinking about the subject while chewing the tip of my fountain pen. Anyone could
ramble on and leave big spaces between the words, but the trick was to come up with convincing
arguments to prove the necessity of talking. I thought and thought, and suddenly I had an idea.
I wrote the three pages Mr Keesing had assigned me and was satisfi ed. I argued that talking is a
female trait and that I would do my best to keep it under control, but that I would never be able to

9 decree: an offi cial order by the head of a state which 11 dummy: (here) a stupid person
serves as law 12 fogey: a boring or conservative person
10 quaking in its boots: becoming nervous or apprehensive
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