Ab Reiner

Abraham (Ab/Appie) Samuel Reiner was a sons of Lea Goldberg (1903-1987) and Szaja (Josef/Jo) Reiner (1897-1945).^[1] Both of his parents were from Krakow in Poland but married on 21 June 1928 in Amsterdam. Ab had a younger brother, Marcus (Marco) David Reiner (1932).^[2] The family was Orthodox Jewish. From 1935 onwards, Szaja Reiner and his brother-in-law owned the Rynco shoe factory in Amsterdam, where slippers were made from felt and camel hair.^[3]

Ab was enrolled by Preparatory School No. 51 on 25 September 1933.^[4] In the 1934 kindergarten photo of Anne Frank's class, Ab is the boy on the left, right in front. Anne listed him as number 1.^[5] In the 1935 photo, he is the boy with the white collar, on the left across from of Anne. There Anne gave him number 6.^[6] After kindergarten, he was in Anne's class at the Sixth Montessori School from the first to fifth year,^[7] as was his cousin Salo (Sally, Sal) Kimel.^[8] Ab and Sally's mothers were sisters.^[9]

They were not in Anne's class during their sixth and final school year. After completing the Sixth Montessori School, Ab and Sally, together with other school graduates, presented their teacher Lena Südfeldt with a poetry album as a gift.^[10] Just before the summer holidays of 1941, the German occupiers issued a decree that Jewish children had to attend Jewish schools. Ab and Sally went to the Jewish HBS with a Five-Year Course at the Former Stadstimmertuin 2. In the first year, they were in class 1B.^[11] On 16 May 1942 his Bar Mitzvah was held in the Lekstraat synagogue.^[12]

During the occupation, Ab's family obtained a Sperre because of his father's position as an informant for the Nederlands-Israëlietische Hoofdsynagoge (Dutch-Israeli Main Synagogue), the Ashkenazi Orthodox Jewish community of Amsterdam.^[13] At the end of 1942, Sally's mother had been arrested on the street and deported.^[14] In the winter of 1942-1943, Ab went into hiding with his family and his cousin Sally near Hoogeveen, with the help of resistance member Johannes Post (1906-1944).^[15] On 7 February 1945, they were discovered and arrested by Landwachters who happened to be passing by. The farmer with whom they were hiding was shot dead.^[16] His father was severely beaten on the spot and ultimately shot.^[17] Ab, his brother Marcus, their mother and Sally Kimel were subsequently discovered and ended up in Westerbork and stayed there until they were liberated.^[18]

After the war, he was a mathematician and physicist, a professor of theoretical physics.^[17] He emigrated to Israel around 1956 and took the name Avraham Rinat.^[19]

Source personal data.^[1] Addresses: Lutmastraat 15 huis, Amsterdam (’28); Zuider Amstellaan 37 II (April ’32); Daniel Willinkplein 29A hs (16 May 1940); 13 III (June ’40); Mozartkade 8hs (December ’45).^[1]