Elisabeth (Liesje) Sarphatie Dunn was born in Amsterdam on June 15, 1931, the eldest child of Simon and Johanna Jacoba (nee Muller) Sarphatie. Simon was a member of a Sephardic Jewish family; Jo came from a Christian family. Simon and Jo had eloped in 1929 to Germany, where it was easier for Jo to convert to Orthodox Judaism and to marry. They settled in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, also living for a time in Antwerp, Belgium. Before finding his niche in the diamond industry, Simon was involved in various business ventures. One of these included, in partnership with a chemist friend, a brand of toothpaste named Elisabeth, after his lively young daughter, with Liesje’s picture on the packaging. Liesje, who could be a handful, spent so much time in the naughty corner that Jo marked her growth by the tear-stained fingerprints making their way up the wall.
The Sarphaties led a comfortable life, with sons Isaac (Ies) born in 1934 and Jacques born in 1937, but with the Nazi invasion in 1940 came increasing restrictions against Jews. Simon proposed having an anniversary party. Jo thought it was crazy: How could they have a party at a time like this? But Simon replied: This is exactly the time to have a party. Simon and Jo held their 12 1⁄2 wedding anniversary party on March 19, 1942. It was the last time Liesje saw many of her extended family, who later died in concentration camps.
As the situation worsened Simon went into hiding and worked with the underground. Jo, classified by the Nazis as Aryan, also did her part, escorting Jewish children to convents for protection.
The war years were difficult, particularly the Hunger Winter of 1944-45, but Liesje later said she knew her father would return, and he did. After the war the teenage Liesje was apprenticed as a diamond cutter.
By all accounts she ran a little wild – when police caught her driving on the Rijksmuseum grounds, Jo was furious but Simon got Liesje off the hook after a quiet word with the police. On a trip to Monte Carlo, an underage Liesje managed to sneak into a casino where she ran into Simon, who’d also gone AWOL. Don’t let mama find out, he warned.
In 1953, on the town with friends, Liesje met Harrison Dunn, an American medical student. They soon married and in 1954 their first child, Martin, was born, followed in 1956 by daughter Danielle. In 1958 the family moved to Florida, where Harrison entered the US Air Force; their daughter Ruth was born in Orlando that year, followed by daughter Randi at Coco Beach in 1960. On Harrison’s discharge the family moved to Silver Spring, MD and then to New Haven, CT, where Harrison was a resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and where youngest daughter Eva was born in 1963.
Theirs was a peripatetic life; Harrison became a GP, then specialised in emergency medicine, and the family moved between the US and the Netherlands several times. They spent many years in Hartford, CT, within reach of New York City, which Liesje loved to visit. But no matter where they lived Liesje created a warm, loving and comfortable home for her family: tirelessly cooking and cleaning; knitting sweaters; reading bedtime stories; driving the children to horseback riding, ice skating and other after-school activities; attending school functions, dance recitals and swim meets; making Dutch pancakes to order for the kids and late dinners for Harrison when he came home from a long shift at the emergency room. She treated each child fairly, carefully portioning out the exact number of chocolates and licorice sent by Jo and dealing with any odd leftover by eating them herself – she was known for her sweet tooth.
In Hartford during the 1970s, with the kids growing up, Liesje enrolled at Hartford College for Women, where she earned an associate’s degree; when a would-be mugger tried to rob her as she was leaving campus she hit him over the head, breaking her umbrella. She went on to the University of Hartford, where she studied psychology and history, but swapped academic studies for real estate, working for The Wallace Company in West Hartford in 1998. With the kids scattered across the world, Liesje and Harrison moved with Randi’s son Seth to Visalia, CA. After Harrison’s death in 2002, Liesje lived with Danielle and her husband Eric in Tustin, CA, then in Orange, CA, and finally in Southport, NC, where she died peacefully at home, in bed, on March 28, aged 92.
Liesje was predeceased by her beloved husband Harrison, daughter Randi and brothers Ies and Jacques. She leaves children Martin Dunn of Sydney, Australia; Danielle Dunn and her husband Eric Litcher of Southport, NC; Ruth Dunn and her husband Stewart Lehr of Umina Beach, Australia; and Eva Dunn of Culver City, CA; grandchildren Seth Dunn, Katie Spagnolo, Hannah Rose Dunn and Erica Litcher Boisvert; several great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.