Five Brothers and a War

Margrietstraat 20—Middle Floor

As one moved up the stairs, one arrived into a short hallway, covered with Purperhart (“Purpleheart”)—a very hard tropical wood with purple tones. It weighs 850 kg/m 3 (53 lbs/ft 3 )

To the right was an exact replica of the WC below. It is stacked on top of the other. Next is the small bedroom, with windows overlooking the Speenkruidstraat, and a doorway with balcony access. For the war period, this room was Bertus’, although at some point Kees used the room. Later, after Leendert had died, and after the double wedding of oldest brother, Leen, to younger Bender sister, Rita, and second-oldest brother, Piet, to older sister, Henny, it was necessary to convert this bedroom into a second kitchen. The reason it is known that Kees was in that room was due to his use of the walls for target practice, using both darts and pellets. When the wall was too damaged, it was simply covered with another layer of wallpaper. Then when the contractor was doing the conversion to a kitchen the wallpaper was removed and there was almost nothing left. By late 1951, Kees having just been married, had moved to Canada. Shortly after his arrival, he received an angry letter from Piet because he had to spend extra remodeling money to repair all the damage. The flooring was nearly bulletproof linoleum. The master bedroom was the only bedroom with heat—it was outfitted with the same fireplace and coal-fired heater as the two rooms downstairs. The bed was set against the wall separating the two bedrooms. The far wall was the same as the dining room below— a set of French doors flanked by stationary panes. This room became the master bedroom for Piet and Hennie in its later use. The next room was the bathroom, which was literally a bathroom. As is true of most bathrooms in Holland, it did not have a toilet—toilets are normally reserved only for WCs. The far wall had the bathtub. On the left side was a washing machine with a hand-

van Pelt

Five Brothers and a War

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