Martin Premsela. Photographer unknown. (Literatuurmuseum Den Haag)
Martin Jacob Premsela was acquainted with the art of translation even as a child. He was born in Amsterdam on 25 January 1896 and grew up in Antwerp, which was then still bilingual, in the family of tradesman Eliazer Premsela and his wife Marry Schönberg. His mother translated serials, short stories and novels written by authors including Maupassant, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Zola for the Amsterdam weekly De Kroniek, and already allowed her son to help her in correcting her work. At primary school, he translated a self-authored story into French.