The “Bijenkorf” or Beehive is a chain of high-end department stores with its flagship store on the Dam Square in Amsterdam. Founded in 1870 by Simon Goudsmit, the initially small haberdashery was turned into the famous chain-store it still is by his widow and cousin, Arthur Isaac.

When Kairos’ mother, Lettie, suffered the double-humiliation and pain of losing Great War veteran “the Belgian fiancé” as well as his baby, she wanted nothing more than to get away from the endless fields and the small town where everyone knew her. She welcomed her mother’s suggestion of a job as store clerk at the glamorous (Jewish) department store called “the Beehive” in the big city of Amsterdam. Turning her back on the sadness of her old life, Leaticia (as she now called herself) did all she could to pass for what she thought of as a “lady.” However, like most teenagers, her children Kairos and his sister Trudy rebel…

They secretly love eating a Kielbasa-like sausage from the HEMA store. This equivalent of a dollar-store was founded in 1926 by Leo Meyer, the nephew of “Beehive” founder Simon Goudsmit. Not realizing the connection with the upscale “Beehive” department store, snobs like (Kairos’ mother) Laetitia Keizer generally looked down on the HEMA.

While the fancy “Beehive” department store was a great steppingstone for Laetitia, the height of luxury, the Fashion House of Hirsch and Cie, is really what she aspired to:

The Jewish Sylvain Kahn and Sal Berg obtained a loan from Leo Hirsch to start a French fashion clothing store branch in Amsterdam. With the patronage of the Royal House and the Amsterdam elite, Hirsch & Cie became so successful that by 1912, the fashion house could move into the imposing building in Leidse Square, where the festive opening was celebrated with the first-ever Dutch international fashion show; twenty models from Paris showed off the latest fashion from France, Belgium, and Germany.

At the end of 1941 due to the war, Kahn and Berg had to go into hiding, and by July 1943, the Nazis requisitioned the building. While Kahn and Berg survived the war, many of their Jewish, French-speaking staff did not. After the war, as Amsterdam had to rise from the ashes and society had become more egalitarian, there was less of a need for high fashion, and eventually, Hirsch & Cie went out of business. As a sign of the times, the old Hirsch & Cie building currently houses Apple…