Ode to Diana, Monica en Suzy Blok | Choices in love, an ode to my sisters

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I am the oldest of four daughters. Our parents were of different nationalities and religions.

My father was Jewish, born in Amsterdam, my mother Argentinian and Catholic.

They met in Buenos Aires, where my father had fled to along with the Turkish ambassador he was working for at the time in The Hague.

A deep bond developed between the Turkish ambassador, his family and my father. But the ambassador and his family moved again and my father stayed behind as a diplomat at the Dutch embassy in Buenos Aires.

After the war, my father learned that his entire family, his father, mother and only brother, had perished in Auschwitz.

He survived because he was in Buenos Aires, thanks to the Turkish ambassador.

For a very long time we did not know that my father was Jewish...he never spoke about his past.

Later we understood better and better why.

As a child, because of the many moves, I was a stranger in a strange land.

I know what it feels like to feel lost. Until recently, I dreamed I lost my way at night in a strange city.

The other day I spoke to Diana, the sister who comes after me, and I told her about my dream.

It turns out she had the same thing all the time,

Writing and drawing were a way for me to give a voice to the world that lived inside me. To express my inner life and give it a safe place.

Art in many forms was the way in which each of us could express ourselves....

In the 1970s we decided to start a new life in Amsterdam.

This time without our parents who still lived in Mexico at the time. We did not speak a word of Dutch and had to learn a lot, but in Amsterdam we were safe and at home.

We were determined and chose freedom and art:

Diana, with her photos and video work ; Monica with her performances, Suzy with her dance and me with writing and drawing.

Amsterdam, with its ancient tradition of different peoples, religions and art since 750 years, became our home, and like many others we will never leave here.