Dolf Vecht

Adolf (Dolf) Vecht was a son of Herman Vecht (1894-1943), originally from Elburg (Gelderland), and Maria Orchudesch (1898-1943).^[1] Herman Vecht was related to a Jewish family with a long history in Elburg, descendants of Heijman Jacobs, the first Jew to be permitted to live in the small town of Goor (Overijssel) and granted civil rights there in 1679.^[2]Herman was a second cousin of Elburg cattle trader Jacob Vecht (1883-1942).^[3]

When Herman was five years old, his father, Isaäk (or Isaäc) Vecht left Elburg with his wife and five children - Henriette (1890), Emanuël (1892), Herman (1894), Mozes (1899) and Jacob (1902) - for Amsterdam to build a new life.^[4] Son Herman married Maria Orchudesch in Amsterdam in 1923. She was a daughter of Aron Orchudesch, vice president and co-founder of the Rechouwous, an association that represented Jewish interests in the Indische Buurt, a neighbourhood in the eastern part of Amsterdam.^[5] Herman's brother Emanuël was married to a sister of Maria's.^[6] Herman is said to have been an office clerk,^[7]  but from advertisements in the monthly magazine of Rechouwous, it appears that he ran a spectacles shop.^[8] Herman and Maria had two children: Flory Annie was born in 1924 and Dolf four years later in 1928.

Starting in August 1932, Dolf attended Prepatory School No 51.^[9] In a photo taken in spring 1934 of Anne Frank's kindergarten class, Dolf is the boy with glasses next to Ms. Baldal.^[10] In a photo from August 1934, he is sitting on the floor, front left.^[11] In the 1935 photo, Dolf sits in the back, left of Anne. She sits in the back center, wearing a white dress.^[12] After kindergarten, Dolf went on to the Sixth Montessori School, but he and Anne were not in the same class. When he was deregistered on 27 September 1941, it was noted that he was going to the Jewish Montessori school on Daniël Willinkplein.^[13]

Since 1939, Dolf's grandfather Isaäk Vecht had lived in the Joodsche Invalide, a nursing home for elderly and disabled Jews. On 1 March 1943, all residents and staff were rounded up and deported. Isaäk was murdered in the gas chambers of Sobibor extermination camp on 13 March 1943. Dolf, his father, mother and sister Flory were imprisoned in Westerbork until 6 April 1943. Then, together with 2116 others, they were put on a transport to Sobibor. There they were gassed immediately upon arrival on 9 April 1943.^[14] Just two women from this sixth transport to Sobibor managed to survive the camp.^[15]

Source personal data.^[1] Addresses: Mauvestraat 20-I, Amsterdam; Meerhuizenplein 3-I (1940).