Ode to Mietje Nord Thomson-Goudsmit | Our great-grandmother

Mietje was an emancipated woman in an era when the position of women was very different.

Mietje Goudsmit was born in Deventer in 1861, the middle one of a family of 10 children, seven of whom survived. Her mother died in childbirth of the 10th child, which was not unusual in those days, her father remarried her mother's sister.

As the middle one, her father told her to: ‘obey the older children and yield to the younger ones’. She did not like that at all, her reaction to this: ‘then I can lie on the floor and let them walk all over me’ This shows something of her character at a young age. The Goudsmit family had a drapery business. In 1884, when her father was 58, the family moved to Amsterdam, to the Muidergracht, and not long after that to the Nieuwe Keizersgracht.

The business continued as a sewing workshop, where Mietje's sisters made women's and children's suits.

Mietje and Joseph did improve themselves and are achieving prosperity. They take an active part in Amsterdam's cultural life, make trips abroad with their own car and driver and dedicate themselves to good causes. The children receive a good education and rotate in the business.

Together with her husband, she enlarges their business. Mietje is a business woman like her husband, goes to the office on the Keizersgracht every day, manages the secretariat, deals with contracts, staff hiring (about 30 girls were employed), cash matters, deliveries, marketing and advertising. Her sister Klaartje also worked in the business, helping to develop the pudding recipes and supervising the machines, among other things.

When her husband Joseph travels to India for six months and WW I breaks out, she effortlessly manages the business. She gives a detailed account of her work and leadership by letter. Everything shows that she is in charge. A confident woman, she serves people, has strong opinions and makes decisions. They are equals both in marriage and in business. Interviews about the success of their business, however, are done by Joseph, there she is not mentioned.

Joseph fathered a child before his marriage. Mietje deals with this generously. This daughter is included in their family and in the business. The mother of this ‘for-child’ is also taken care of for life, as the will later reveals. This daughter is already deceased by then. 

Mietje and Joseph, both Jewish, assimilate. Their Jewish heritage becomes fatal to them in WW II, Mietje dies in 1941 on the day her son Gustaaf's house was confiscated by the occupying forces, after Gustaaf had already been hit by all the restrictive measures as a lawyer. Her husband, son and sister Klaartje do not survive the war.