‘I entered the day care centre as a so-called orphan. The orphans were the easiest to get out, because there were no parents that had to give permission. I was an eight-month-old baby, which made it even easier. Babies couldn’t betray anyone and there was always someone willing to take in a baby. Plus, they were easy to smuggle. You simply put them in a suitcase. That’s how they got me out.’
Max Degen

‘When I was 10 days old, my parents and I were betrayed. We were in hiding. My parents were put on a transport, and I was rescued from the day care centre. I was only one month old. A young student, Enny Lim, put me in an empty rubbish bin and carried me out via the school next door.’
Benjamin Flesschedrager

‘Simply leaving the day care centre with children was difficult because there were always guards outside the front door of the former theatre Hollandsche Schouwburg across the street. When tram line 9 came, we would walk out the door, each with a baby under our arm. We ran alongside the tram and would get on at the next stop, gasping for breath.’
Semmy Woortman, resistance worker

‘When I arrived at the day care centre aged 15, they said they would get me out as soon as possible. But nothing happened. I just sat and waited. After a week I couldn’t wait any longer. I couldn’t face the idea of having to escape and run again, like I had already done several times. I wanted to be with my parents. So I decided to go to them. I just walked out of the day care centre and joined a transport to Camp Westerbork.’ Ted Musaph-Andriesse

‘I remember the day the day care centre was evacuated very well. I was 16. I had hidden in the attic. That final day, I saw everything through the grates in the ceiling of the baby room; how the entire day care centre was evacuated. The next day, when it was all over, I finally plucked up the courage to come out. I was taken to the house of the Lewin family on Plantage Parklaan. That was one of the hiding places used regularly to temporarily take care of children who had been smuggled out.’
Sal Kool

‘One day, my sister and I had to go to the principal. She said: “You will be picked up tomorrow, the day after or the day after that. First one, then the other. Say goodbye now, because you won’t see each other for a while.” My sister was picked up first. My turn came a week later. I had to walk into the garden and keep walking into the school. There was a man waiting there for me. He said: “Stay calm. We’re going outside now and if anybody asks anything, I’ll do the talking.”’
Levi Hagenaar

‘The principal of the day care centre asked me, as her neighbour, whether she could use the school because the day care centre was getting so full. I made an empty classroom and part of the garden available. These soon became escape routes for the children. Many children were smuggled out via the school. Resistance workers could walk in and out quite freely, because the Germans paid no attention to the school. Perhaps that was because I deliberately pretended I didn’t want anything to do with the Schouwburg or the Jews.’ Johan van Hulst, school principal