"Grandma Ritter, we knew her only as Adriana, was born in Berlin, in 1920. Her mom, my great grandmother, was a high class hooker, that was how she survived in the devastation that was post World War One Germany. She had a Dutch lover, Remy, by whom my grandma was conceived. Remy took them back to Amsterdam with him, but was stabbed to death a year later. Mom decided to give her daughter her own surname, which is German. Adriana seemed all poised to follow in her mother's footsteps, unfortunately. The war had started and it looked like the German occupation would be inevitable and within days, there they were. So, Adriana was enlisted in the Dutch resistance, and became the mistress of several high ranking nazi officers in the occupation, and oh, the secrets they would tell her in the heights of arousal! There were other dangers afoot as well, especially given that my mother's mother was Jewish, but with very scant success Adriana managed to hide this from the Nazis. At the end of the war, Adriana was accused of being a double agent and just managed to flee to Iraq where she met my grandfather, Hendrick, who was a transplanted Dutchman working in the oil fields. They were soon married and in 1956 she gave birth to my mother whom she named Astrid, after her own Swedish grandmother. Adriana was granted a full amnesty by the Dutch government, so they moved to Amsterdam where they opened a cabaret together. Granddad ran off with one of the dancers, and shortly after they were divorced, so on her own, Adriana ran the cabaret while bringing up mommy..."
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