David Witjas
David Witjas was in kindergarten and class 5B of the Sixth Montessori School together with Anne Frank.
Person
David Benjamin Witjas was a son of Isaäc Witjas (1904-1942) and Gretha Kaas (1909-1943). He had younger brother, called Louis (1935-1943).[1] HIs father was a manager at Metz & Co., a well-known fashion store in Amsterdam, and later at Model Behrendt, the bridal wear studio owned by the parents of postwar cartoonist Fritz Behrendt.[2]
David was netered in the register of Prepatory School No. 51 on 5 February 1934.[3] In the 1935 preschool photo David is the boy in the centre. He is wearing a white shirt and necktie.[4] In school year 1939-'40 he was with Anne in class 5B of the Sixht Montessori School, but he changed school in October 1939. For after his parents' separartion, as of 14 October 1939, he, his mother and younger brother lived with his grandparents at Swammerdamstraat 50hs/I. He then attended the nearby Fourth Montessorischool in the Oosterpark neighbourhood in Amsterdam-Oost.
Isaäc Witjas and Gretha Kaas finally divorced formally on 6 December 1940. Isaäc remarried the same month on New Year's Eve with Maria Neeltje Landman (1910-1971), a Gentile woman. On 6 January 1942 their daughter Marjorie Wilhelmina Witjas was born.[5]
Gretha worked as a manager at L.A. Kaas grocery shop,[6] owned by her parents Levie Kaas (1885-1943) and Henriette Kaas-Sturkop (1883-1943). Because of her employment, during the German occupation David's mother was issued a Sperre: a temporary reprieve of deportation.[7] Her parents were rounded up in April 1943 and sent to Sobibor death camp, where they were murdered immediately up on arrival on 16 April.[8]
Two months later, on Tuesday 6 July 1943, the seventeenth of in total nineteen trains departed from Westerbork to Sobibor death camp. On board were 2,417 people - men, women and children - including David Witjas, his mother and younger brother. They were all murdered immediately upon arrival on 9 July 1943. No one from this seventeenth transport to Sobibor survived the camp.[9] David's father had been murdered a year before, on 12 August 1942, in Auschwitz.[10]
Source personal data.[11] Addresses: Zoomstraat 41-II, Amsterdam; Swammerdamstraat 50hs/I (1939).[11]
Footnotes
- ^ Stadsarchief Amsterdam (SAA), Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart Isaäc Witjas; Archiefkaart Gretha Kaas; Archiefkaart Louis Witjas.
- ^ Genealogie en kwartierstaten Sturkop: Personalia Witjas, David c.s..
- ^ Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), reg. code A_Montessori_I_001: Administratie leerlingen K.O. "de Blauwe Zeedistel", volgnummer 286.
- ^ AFS, AFC, reg. code A_AFrank_III_055.067: Leerlingen uit de klas van Anne Frank op de Zesde Montessorischool, Amsterdam, 1935.
- ^ SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart Maria Neeltje Landman; Archiefkaart Marjorie Wilhelmina Witjas.
- ^ Joods Amsterdam: Swammerdamstraat 50 - L. A. Kaas.
- ^ Arolsen Archives, Index cards from the Judenrat (Jewish Council) file in Amsterdam, Document ID: 130314678: Gretha Kaas.
- ^ Joods Monument: David Benjamin Witjas.
- ^ Stichting Sobibor: Transport 17.
- ^ Joods Monument: Isaäc Witjas.
- a, b SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart David Benjamin Witjas.
Digital files (1)
Klassenfoto van Anne op de Voorbereidende school No. 51, Amsterdam, 1935
Copyright: Rechthebbende(n) onbekend
Photographer: De collectie kan worden ingezet voor het publiek