{"id":537,"date":"2025-10-21T16:10:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T14:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/walkofpride.amsterdam\/?post_type=hero&p=537"},"modified":"2026-06-30T13:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:41:11","slug":"bet-van-beeren","status":"publish","type":"hero","link":"https:\/\/walkofpride.amsterdam\/en\/heroes\/bet-van-beeren\/","title":{"rendered":"Bet van Beeren"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Author: Agnes Cremers<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tin factory<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Elisabeth Maria (\u201cBet\u201d) van Beeren was born into a large Catholic family in Amsterdam\u2019s colorful, working-class Jordaan district. Her father worked as a street paver; her mother ran a lodging house but later wandered through the neighborhood selling fish from a pushcart. As the eldest daughter, Bet helped her mother sell fish from an early age, but she also worked in a tin factory, where she lost the tips of two fingers. After a quarrel at the factory she went to work for her uncle in Caf\u00e9 Amstelstroom on Zeedijk, one of the oldest streets on the edge of the city\u2019s red-light district. In 1927, at the age of 25, she took over the business. According to tradition, she renamed it Caf\u00e9 \u2019t Mandje (the basket), after the basket of food her mother would bring her every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before the Second World War, Bet van Beeren\u2019s caf\u00e9 was known as a distinctly \u201cmixed\u201d place. Zeedijk, which was close to the harbor, attracted a varied public of sailors, laborers, and others who were less likely to find their place elsewhere in the city. Many homosexual men found their way to Bet\u2019s. A little further on, on Lange Niezel, there was Caf\u00e9 Monico run by Blonde Saar, which was more of an attraction for lesbian women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Bet\u2019s it was allowed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although kissing was not allowed in her caf\u00e9\u2014for anyone\u2014she offered, within those limits, a striking amount of freedom. For a long time, dancing in caf\u00e9s was prohibited without a special license, except on celebrations of the royal family. Where gay men who wanted to dance with each other were refused elsewhere, Bet made no distinction. Her loyalty to the House of Orange-Nassau\u2014the Dutch royal family\u2014gave her a reason to allow everyone on the dance floor. As Albert Mol later put it: \u201cThat was not allowed anywhere, ever, but at Bet\u2019s it was allowed and it could be done and no one found it odd.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bet van Beeren cared little for conventions. She rode a motorcycle from an early age and regularly showed up at her caf\u00e9 with a new girlfriend seated behind her. In \u2019t Mandje, men wearing neckties ran a certain risk. According to a well-known story, she would either cut or pull them off, no excuses, and then hang them up. No one was to feel superior to anyone else in her caf\u00e9. Before long, the ceiling was decorated with ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the war, her caf\u00e9 was situated in a grey area. The red-light district itself was forbidden territory for German military personnel because of the danger of infection, but Zeedijk fell just outside it. German officers would therefore sometimes come there. And yet even though the enemy might at times be present in her establishment, Bet gave shelter to people in hiding, presumably in the attic, and hid weapons for her brother, who was in the resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sharp tongue and an astute business instinct<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bet\u2019s life and personality gave rise to countless anecdotes. She was known for her sharp tongue and her astute instinct for business, with which she built up a successful establishment. At the same time, she was generous. Although no longer a practicing believer herself, she gave financial support to both the Salvation Army and the Catholic Church. She developed a special bond with Major Bosshardt of the Salvation Army. As Bosshardt said later: \u201cShe had an enormous mouth; no one could stand up to her. I think I may have been one of the few. Perhaps that is precisely why she liked me so much. I do not rule out that she may even have been a little in love with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collection of extremes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Her lasting significance lies in \u2019t Mandje itself. For 40 years, Bet van Beeren gave shelter there to \u201cbirds of diverse plumage.\u201d It was a place where people were allowed to be visibly different. In 1966, two heterosexuals on a tour of gay bars described it as a collection of extremes: \u201cWith, as always, the most heterogeneous public one could possibly imagine. The people here are playing a double game: we saw guest workers from Morrocco, fierce-looking young men dressed from head to toe in leather, a fat 35-year-old in a lilac catsuit, and another young man standing unabashedly with his fly wide open in the middle of the caf\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beer and herring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bet was known as a heavy drinker. When she died in 1967, her lifestyle was remembered with some astonishment, as Dutch author Gerard Reve put it: \u201cfor 40 years her nutrition had consisted of beer, herring\u2014if possible\u2014and occasionally here and there a bite of solid food. Forty years of more than 40 beers a day and then only dying of a liver complaint at 65\u2014that is an accomplishment that no one needs to emulate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After her death, her younger sister Greet continued the caf\u00e9 until 1982. The interior from that year was preserved and later partly reconstructed in the Amsterdam Museum. During the Gay Games of 1998, \u2019t Mandje temporarily reopened its doors. In 2008 one of Van Beeren\u2019s nieces reopened it permanently. Although the caf\u00e9 was renovated, its character was preserved: as a historic monument, it still looks almost exactly like the caf\u00e9 of the past. Bet van Beeren and her Caf\u00e9 \u2019t Mandje remain a living chapter in Amsterdam\u2019s queer history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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