![]() ![]() In the fall of 1935 Pais began his studies at the University of Amsterdam without a clear idea regarding his desired career. ![]() He graduated with a working knowledge of English, French, and German. He passed his final examinations as number one in his class. At age twelve he passed examinations to enter a higher burgher school and attended a school in Amsterdam with a five-year curriculum of basic subjects. Pais was a bright student and a voracious reader during his early education and said he had a happy childhood and felt integrated in Dutch society. During Pais's childhood his father was an elementary schoolmaster, headmaster, and later the headmaster of the Sephardic Hebrew school. His only sibling, Annie, was born on November 1, 1920. They both taught school until his mother quit when they married on December 2, 1916. His parents met while studying to become elementary-school teachers. His mother, Kaatje "Cato" van Kleeff, was the daughter of an Ashkenazi diamond cutter. His father, Isaiah "Jacques" Pais, was the descendant of Sephardic Jews who migrated from Portugal to the Low Countries around the beginning of the 17th century. Pais was born in Amsterdam, the first child of middle-class Dutch Jewish parents. ![]()
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