Anita Terpstra delved into disconcerting family history: descendant of ‘knife pullers’ | Culture

Anita Terpstra: “The heath functioned as a kind of trap for my ancestors.”

Ⓒ Photo Anne van der Woude

Anita Terpstra knew that her great-grandmother Hebeltje was born in a sod hut. She also knew that the Harrekieten, the inhabitants of the Frisian village of Harkema, where her maternal grandfather and grandmother were born and raised, were called ‘knife pullers’. But what it really meant, that hard life on the poor heathland, the writer and art historian only understood when she delved into her special family history. “They literally had to fight for their existence.”