Mendelevski's Box

by Roger Swindells

  ‘Not by paying my bills, you won’t. Please don’t mention it again, I can look after myself. I’ll get dressed and we’ll go, we’ll have plenty of time and we can have coffee back here before you leave. While you’re at work I’ll look at the invoices again and find out where the addresses are for tomorrow. We’ll have to take trams, I think.’

  ‘I’ve no idea where they go from or where they go to, so it’s up to you.’

  They delivered the washing and soon finished the shopping. He thought he had become quite proficient but Maaike held her own and bettered many of the crowd of hardened women he had competed against for three weeks. Bargain followed bargain as she charmed successive stallholders.

  ‘You’re excellent at this, who taught you to shop like that?’

  ‘It’s amazing what a sad smile and a pair of crutches can achieve, being disabled helps sometimes.’

  ‘Nonsense, it’s being beautiful that makes the difference.’

  She squeezed his hand. ‘Let’s go home.’

  ‘I just want to buy flowers.’

  ‘The chrysanthemums are beautiful and so are the carnations, they’re my favourites.’

  He bought two bunches of each and she looked at him quizzically. ‘Grietje is going to love all those.’

  ‘They’re not all for Grietje, the carnations are yours.’

  She stretched up and kissed his cheek.

  Back at Slootstraat he took Grietje’s flowers and groceries upstairs while Maaike made coffee and put her flowers in a vase. ‘I’ve put Grietje’s in a bucket of water so she can arrange them herself when she gets back.’

  ‘It’ll be a nice surprise for her.’

  ‘Right, where are we on our research for tomorrow?’

  ‘Mevrouw de Groot on Wilhelminastraat, I suspect from the price that it was a repair but there’s no sign of her paying and both the original and duplicate copies are here. It looks like the bill was never sent and maybe the watch is still in the box. Dykstra on Tolstraat: sounds like he’s from Friesland, looks like another repair judging by the price but it’s an awful copy and it’s torn, I can’t see whether it’s marked paid or not. I suspect both de Groot and Dykstra were repairs that your father started at Peperstraat, or even Dijkstraat, but didn’t finish before you all went into hiding.’

  ‘I’ll check the box for them tonight and we can take them with us if I find them. If they didn’t know how or where to get in touch with father for their watches, it seems unlikely they could have betrayed us. What about the third invoice?’

  ‘It looks like three brand new watches, certainly not repairs, and very good ones obviously, it’s for 6,000 guilders. It’s a very expensive address. Your father has marked it as paid so he must have got them to him somehow and he got paid. If you discount David Meijer’s watch, there are only two left so these three can’t still be in the box.’

  ‘Who did they go to and whereabouts is he?’

  ‘Matthijs van der Meer on Johannes Vermeerstraat, I think it’s near the Rijksmuseum. It’s not round here that’s for certain, in fact none of the addresses are as far as I know. I really haven’t a clue, I haven’t been far from the Jordaan, walking long distances is not exactly my strong point.’ She smiled weakly.

  ‘So how are we going to find these places tomorrow?’

  ‘We’ll have to ask Jos tonight, maybe he has a map or perhaps he can give us directions. I don’t think we’ll be able to do them all in one day, all three of the streets are obviously very long judging by the high numbers of the addresses. We might have to go on Monday as well. We can take Irene with us.’

  ‘I hope you will be able to walk to some of them with me at least.’

  ‘We can take the tram, either on Marnixstraat, where we took the washing, or on the Singelgracht, or even on Rozengracht depending on where in the city we have to go. Beyond that I don’t know my way anywhere and some of the trams haven’t started running again yet.’

  ‘Don’t worry, neither do I.’ He laughed. ’I’d hardly been out of the Jodenbuurt until I was arrested. I’ve only just started to realise what an innocent, spoiled eighteen-year-old I was, I knew nothing about nothing, except my studies of course. You’re only eighteen now and you are much more experienced with life than me.’

  ‘You’ve had to grow up quickly since then though, you’ve been through things many will never have to experience, and you have had to become a man very quickly.’

  ‘Maybe, but I sometimes still feel like a little boy. Money is strange to me, shopping for myself, finding my way around the city, I’m still innocent in all of those things.’

  She leaned over and kissed him. ‘And with the ladies,’ she laughed.

  He managed an embarrassed smile. ‘I must get to work, it’s nearly eleven. Can you write those three addresses down for me?’

  The bar was packed with Saturday shoppers. Jos and his wife were working and virtually every table and the benches outside were occupied. Jos disappeared down the cellar as soon as Simon arrived, but only to change a barrel and to bring up some bottles of spirits. Thankfully he reappeared quickly and his wife went upstairs almost immediately, much to the relief of both of them, he suspected.

  By two the bulk of the morning trade had disappeared, the women back to their houses with the shopping and the men either to watch Ajax or back home to their wives for an afternoon sleep.

  While things were quiet he showed Jos the list of addresses he and Maaike hoped to visit the next day.

  ‘You’ll do well to get to all these in a day if you’re walking and Maaike definitely won’t manage it. If I were you I’d try to do two, which ones I’ll leave to you.’ He brought a map from upstairs and pointed out all three streets. As Maaike had observed all three were long and the map didn’t show at which end the addresses might be.

  ‘It’s only a guess, but I think the numbers start near the centre of the city and go up as the street goes outwards, so at least two of your three are going to be a long way out. You’ll have to take a tram to Overtoom if you’re going to Wilhelminastraat, or you could stay on to Museumplein if you’re going to Johannes Vermeerstraat. Tolstraat is right down in the Pijp.’ He pointed to the map. ‘Stay on until you get to the Amstel.’

  ‘It sounds complicated, can you tell Maaike all that when she gets here or, better still, write it out for her?’

  ‘I spend more time working for you than I do for myself.’ He laughed and slapped him on the back. ‘Oh, that reminds me. Theo Visser will be arriving on the Triton in the Westerdok on Monday morning. It’s near his home but I think he’ll go for a beer first. Well, if you were married to her, wouldn’t you?’ He laughed again. ‘We’ll go down and meet him if you think it’s going to help, but I don’t see what else he can tell you.’

  ‘I’m just hoping that he or his sister might know something about any errands Gerrit might have carried out for my father. Someone must have found out where we were, unless we gave ourselves away, of course, and anyone who had contact as a customer or supplier might be the one.’

  ‘But won’t you have spoken to them all by the time we see Theo again?’

  ‘Some of them, but I want to check their stories if possible. One is almost certainly dead, we’re seeing two tomorrow hopefully and the other on Monday afternoon. Then there’s Berger, the Lijnbaansgracht man who’s disappeared. There’s also the man we saw at Kromme Palmstraat, is he the ‘general dealer’ Theo knew about or is it a different man? Did Gerrit ever mention anything about him, did he see Gerrit going into the house with food? There are still so many possibilities.’

  ‘This is getting like a detective story, I just hope you can solve it. I might know who the man in the car is quite soon, I’m seeing my man from the police records section next week.’

  ‘That would be wonderful, I hope it answers some questions. I still think that whoever rented the storage in those old stables is the most likely person to have known we were up above.’

  ‘I just hope for your sa
ke that you can identify the bastard who gave you away. If you can’t, it will gnaw away at you forever, I reckon.’

  He reflected for a moment. ’Possibly, Jos, possibly. Can I look in the special place? I want to check the two other watches.’

  ‘Go on then, don’t wait for me. I trust you, and bring two crates of Amstel up with you.’

  Both watches were, as Maaike suspected, older ones his father had clearly had in for repair, unlike the new one intended for David Meijer. One was unmarked except for small dents and scratches but the other, like Meijer’s, was engraved. Worn, but still legible on the back were the initials ‘WdG’.

  He showed it to Maaike when she arrived. ‘Meneer de Groot’s watch, his wife never got it back and she never paid, it all fits in with your father still having both copies of the invoice.’

  ‘All I need to know then is how it got to my father, if it was before we went into hiding Mevrouw de Groot is not our man, sorry, woman. I want to go to de Groot’s and to Tolstraat tomorrow. I would like to return their watches, if at all possible. I couldn’t get David Meijer’s to him, but I hope I can finish the job my father started on these two, it’s important to me.’

  She smiled at him. ‘What a lovely man you are, Simon.’

  Sunday 21st October 1945

  He was afraid Grietje would be upset that he would be out all day with Maaike. He knew that she liked them to spend Sunday together. He dressed and went into the kitchen with some trepidation, but he needn’t have worried.

  She was in a good mood, making him a cooked breakfast of eggs. ‘Simon, good morning, how are you today? It’s a nice, sunny morning.’

  ‘I’m fine, thank you, you’re up and about early.’

  ‘I’ve got lots to do. Cleaning this morning, then I’m going to collect the washing, then I’ll do the ironing, and then I’ll cook. Thank you so much for the flowers, they’re lovely and for the shopping too, I notice you slipped some extra items in. You really shouldn’t have.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, I told you I don’t really pay my way, so I thought some extra bits and pieces might be appreciated.’

  ‘I’m going to cook the chicken with all the vegetables today, if that’s alright.’

  ‘Grietje, I’m sorry, but I’m going to be out all day looking for more of father’s customers.’

  Her face fell for a moment then she smiled and said, ‘With Maaike I suppose. Never mind, I’ve got lots to do this morning, so I’ll cook this evening. Ask Maaike to join us again, she won’t be able to cook anything if she’s out with you all day.’

  Irene looked up from her breakfast. ‘Yes, please, ask Maaike to come, please, I like Maaike. Please, Simon.’

  Maaike opened the door wearing her coat, clearly ready to go.

  ‘Good morning, I’m ready, it’s quite exciting, isn’t it?’

  ‘I’m not sure about that, it’s all a bit sad, really. Jos says it’s becoming a bit of a fixation for me.’

  ‘Understandable. What are you going to do if you do find out who betrayed you?’

  ‘That I don’t know. Come on, let’s go. Grietje wants you to come for a meal this evening by the way.’

  ‘Oh no, really? Again? The last time I ate with you two was very difficult if you remember.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it, I’m sure the atmosphere will be a lot less frosty this time, she seems to have accepted that we are…how can I put it?’

  She smiled and touched his arm. ‘A couple?’

  ‘Are we? Yes, I suppose we are. I hope so.’

  They took the tram from Marnixplein as Jos had advised. Maaike struggled a little with the steps up onto the tram as they were quite steep but, as it was quite early on a Sunday morning and they were virtually the only passengers, the driver kindly waited until they were seated before moving off.

  He couldn’t remember any journeys by tram other than those with his father to see Ajax and an almost empty tram, as opposed to one with men hanging on outside, was very different. The rest of his travel had only been in the immediate vicinity of the Jodenbuurt and had always been undertaken on foot.

  They changed trams at the junction with Overtoom and, on consulting Jos’s map, they decided to get off halfway down Overtoom in the hope that 174 Wilhelminastraat would not be too far to walk either way.

  174 was an unpretentious four storey house like all the others in the lengthy row. The porch had two bells with the name de Groot next to number 174A.

  Maaike, already obviously tiring, sounded relieved. ‘Thank goodness it’s the ground floor.’

  The door was opened by a tall slim elegant lady with silver hair piled on top of her head. He estimated she was in her late forties. She wore an expensive dark purple dress and sported equally expensive jewellery.

  ‘Goedemorgen, Mevrouw de Groot?’

  She looked him and Maaike up and down. ‘No, thank you, I’m not buying today.’ She started to close the door.

  ‘Please, you don’t understand, I’m Simon Mendelevski and my friend is Maaike de Vries, I’m here about your watch.’

  ‘My watch? What watch?’

  ‘I think you left it with my father for repair, a gold pocket watch.’

  ‘The Jewish watchmaker, you mean? Yes, of course, I remember, I haven’t seen him or the watch since. He’s your father, you say?’

  ‘He’s dead, my whole family is dead. I’m the only one who survived. I’m sorting out my father’s affairs and I found the invoice for repairs to your watch.’

  ‘It wasn’t my watch. It belonged to my husband, I sent it for repair just after the Germans came. It’s a long story, you’d better come in.’ She looked at Maaike, then down at her crutches. ‘You look tired out dear, please come inside.’

  She showed them into a sitting room tastefully decorated with expensive curtains, paintings and old photographs. A tall, well-built man of about fifty with a military bearing rose from an armchair to greet them.

  ‘Willem, this young man is the son of the watchmaker who had your gold watch, and this is his friend.’ She turned to Maaike. ‘Please sit down, dear.’

  Maaike sank down gratefully in a chair as de Groot offered Simon his hand.

  ‘I’m Willem de Groot.’

  ‘I’m Simon Mendelevski and my friend is Maaike de Vries.’

  ‘I’m pleased to meet you both. Now, about my watch, you say.’

  ‘I’m sorting out my father’s affairs. He died in Auschwitz and we found paperwork to suggest he was repairing a watch for Mevrouw de Groot.’

  ‘Yes, it was my watch, my wife took it to your father in early 1941, he’d been recommended as the best watchmaker in Amsterdam. She knew the watch was important to me. She wanted to do something special for me after I got home from the POW camp. I was a major in the regular Dutch Army and I was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans in Zeeland during the fighting in Middelburg, two days before Rotterdam was bombed and we surrendered. Because I was a regular soldier and because I was captured before the capitulation I was sent to a POW camp in Germany. I was released in late 1940 on the understanding that I signed an undertaking not to raise arms against Germany again. When I recovered from my wounds I went to your father’s business premises but he had gone, it was all empty and closed.’

  ‘And you spoke to Bart, the man downstairs.’

  ‘That’s right, he was a jeweller or something, he sent me to your home. I can’t remember where it was, but that place was empty too.’

  ‘And this was in 1942.’

  ‘Yes, late summer I would say, just before the Germans recalled all the regular officers and sent us to POW camps in Germany. I hid for a while but in the end I was taken as a POW. I only got home in May.’

  ‘We hid too, that’s why you couldn’t find my father at either of the addresses in 1942, but we were betrayed. I’m the only survivor.’

  ‘I’m sorry to hear that, young man.’

  De Groot’s wife came back in with a tray. ‘There’s tea or coffee and biscuits, whi
ch would you like, Maaike?’

  ‘I have something for you.’ He took the watch from his pocket and handed it to de Groot. ‘All repaired and running and there is even a key.’

  De Groot took the watch and turned it over in his palm. He ran his thumb gently over the engraved initials. ‘I don’t know what to say to you, I am touched that you’ve taken the trouble to find us and return the watch. It was my father’s, he was a Willem too, hence the engraving. It’s very precious to me, I didn’t think I’d ever see it again. You could have sold it, we would never have known. Thank you so much.’

  ‘My father hid some items so the Germans didn’t get them before we were transported to the camp, and Maaike here worked it all out through father’s unsent invoice.’

  ‘Oh, of course, how rude of me, how much do I owe you?’

  ‘Please, I don’t want money, I am just finishing the job on behalf of my father as he couldn’t do so himself. He was an honest man and I would not want his memory soiled by anyone thinking he had kept any of their property, especially a nice, much valued gold watch.’

  He thought it best not to mention that he was also checking out his father’s customers to see if one of them had betrayed his family.

  Maaike and de Groot’s wife chatted in the corner while de Groot proudly showed him some of his army photographs and one of his father, the original owner of the watch. ‘I never surrendered to the Nazis, I was wounded and still fighting when I was taken prisoner. I signed the paper to get out of the POW camp to get home to my wife, but I never cooperated while I was free. I’m just so sorry we couldn’t do more to save your people.’

  They walked back to Overtoom and took the tram again. Maaike was apparently refreshed by the coffee and biscuits.

  ‘Those two didn’t betray you, that’s for sure, what a lovely couple. He fought to the end, was a wounded prisoner, got home to his wife and was taken back as a prisoner for a second time.’

  ‘I’m just pleased the watch is back where it belongs, it will run and run for years, my father’s legacy I suppose. Now, when we change trams, do we go home or press on?’