'Fucking Hell'. The story of Truus Oldenburg (Story)

Title

'Fucking Hell'. The story of Truus Oldenburg (Story)

Abstract

In 2018, Truus Oldenburg and professional writer Renate Guitink published the life story of Truus, who was then a woman of 58 years old and living in Amsterdam.

Read the Story: 'Fucking Hell'

Creator

Jaar en Dag Media

Temporal Coverage

1970 – 2020

Date Created

2018

Description

'Fucking Hell". The story of Truus Oldenburg

In 2018, Truus Oldenburg and professional writer Renate Guitink published the life story of Truus, who was then a woman of 58 years old and living in Amsterdam. In her unique memoires Fucking Hell - one of very few autobiographical writings by women on their experiences with heroin and cocaine in the 1970s and 1980s - she writes about her childhood in a small town near Amsterdam, in a family where emotions were not shared and physical abuse was a common occurrence. Truus believed her mom and dad knew about the sexual abuse she suffered since she was 11 years old, by someone they knew - but this was never talked about either. In 1974, at 14 years of age, Truus ran away from home with her boyfriend, who she met in a local dancing and fell in love with. He turned out to be a ‘loverboy’ (pimp) and rented a room for her in the Red Light District of Amsterdam, at the Geldersekade. There, she was supposed to earn some money for the both of them, through prostitution.

Years followed of sex work and increasing drug use; varying from alcohol, cannabis and opium through to LSD, speed, heroin and (crack)cocaine. Truus mostly walked the streets, in the Zeedijk-area and near the Rembrandtplein. She was married a couple of times as well, both times to Dutch men with a Surinamese migration background, both also drug dealers. Both marriages ended badly. Attempts to quit the habit on her own failed as well. For a while, she was homeless and slept rough. In 1990, Truus was arrested by the police for drug dealing. After prison, she chose to go to a therapeutic community for addiction treatment. This was successful. In 1991, according to her memoirs, her drug using career ended.
Fucking Hell - Het verhaal van Truus Oldenburg (with english subtitles)

In this short documentary video, Truus shows us her ‘old neighbourhood’, the place where she “grew up”, in her own words, and that she still visits regularly: the Zeedijk area. She misses the community she was part of. She is happy to share her story, hoping to counter the stigma of drug use and thereby helping others, and offering a unique narrative that involves both the pains and pleasures of drug use in public space.

In the map of drug related places and spaces in Amsterdam in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, you can find images and more information on the places Truus talks about and the Zeedijk-area in general.

Spatial Coverage

Amsterdam

Subject

heroin

Relation

'Fucking Hell". The Story of Truus Oldenburg

Narcotic Archive Item-ID

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