Richard Weisz
Richard Weisz went into hiding with his wife at the home of the Van Hoeve couple, who delivered vegetables to those living in the Secret Annex.
Richard Weisz was a salesman in women's clothing[1] and he had a business located at Keizersgracht 145, which was broken into during the early hours of 2 November 1940.[2] On 24 April 1940 Richard Weisz married Ruth Hanna Neumann in Amsterdam.[1] They lived in Jan van Eijckstraat,[3] together with two sisters and a sister-in-law of Richard.[4]
He and his wife went into hiding in the home of Van Hoeve on Leliegracht (the veg and potato man who delivered produce to the helpers for those in the Secret Annex). On 25 May 1944 they[5] were arrested by SD officers Pieter Schaap, Klaas Nap, Douwe Capelle and policeman Koning,[6] after apparently being betrayed. According to a statement made by Van Hoeve, who was also arrested, the SD was sent an anonymous letter.[7]
After their arrest, the Weisz couple were transferred for interrogation to the SD in Euterpestraat and not long afterwards transported to Westerbork. As arrested people in hiding, they were regarded as prisoners and locked up in Penal Barrack 67. Richard Weisz wrote two letters to Mrs Van Hoeve from Westerbork on 11 and 29 June 1944. In the first he expressed his gratitude for what she and her husband had done for the Weisz couple. At the same time, he asked her to forward any remaining clothes. It can be derived from the second letter that Mrs Van Hoeve had answered the first letter and that she did not know the fate of her husband.[8]
On 3 September 1944 Weisz and his spouse were sent from Westerbork to Auschwitz with the same transport as the Frank family.[9] After that, they were separated. On 28 October, Richard Weisz was sent to concentration camp Stutthof in occupied Poland, and then on to the all-men’s camp Hailfingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany, in November 1944, where he died on 7 January 1945. On 28 February 1945, Ruth was deported to concentration camp Flossenbürg in Bavaria. She most likely perished there (declared dead 10 May 1945).[10]
Source personal data.[11] Addresses: In Amsterdam from September 1933; from June 1937 at Jan van Eijckstraat 26 II.[1]
Footnotes
- a, b, c Stadsarchief Amsterdam (SAA), Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart R. Weisz.
- ^ SAA, Gemeentepolite Amsterdam, inv. nr. 6438: Rapporten bureau Marnixstraat, 1-2 november 1940, mut. 1.40 n.m.
- ^ In the Amsterdam phone directory of June 1938, Richard Weisz is listed as representative of Gehr & Co. See: Gemeente Amsterdam, Telefoongids, Gids. no. 84, juni 1938.
- ^ Joods Monument, Jan van Eijckstraat 26 II, Amsterdam.
- ^ Anne refers to them as: two Jews. Anne Frank, Diary Version A, 25 May 1944, in: The Collected Works, transl. from the Dutch by Susan Massotty, London [etc.]: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019.
- ^ Sytze van der Zee, Vogelvrij. De jacht op joodse onderduiker, Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2010, p. 371. For Schaap, Nap, Capelle and Koning, see: Ad van Liempt & Jan H. Kompagnie, Jodenjacht: de onthutsende rol van de Nederlandse politie in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Amsterdam: Balans, 2011.
- ^ Anne Frank Stichting, Getuigenarchief, Hoeve, van: Verslag van oorlogsbelevenissen door H. van Hoeve, “Groenteman van Anne Frank”.
- ^ Privecollectie S. van Hoeve: Brieven van Richard Weisz (schrijfwijze Weiss) aan H.W. van Hoeve - Scholte, 11 juni 1944 en 29 juni 1944. De eerste brief geeft als verblijfplaats in Westerbork 'barak 67' aan, de tweede 'barak 35'.
- ^ Het Nederlandse Rode Kruis, Den Haag, Oorlogsnazorg: Transportlijst 3 september 1944.
- ^ Volker Mall, Johannes Kuhn, Harald Roth, Die Häftlinge des KZ-Außenlagers Hailfingen/Tailfingen: Daten und Porträts aller Häftlinge, 2. erw. und überarb. Aufl.,Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2021, p. 507
- ^ SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart R. Weisz; Van der Zee, Vogelvrij. p. 493.