Hijman Waas was the eldest of the twins who were born on March 1, 1920 in the family of Salomon Waas and Debora Delden. His brother Jacob was born shortly afterwards. Hijman had an older brother Lion, who was born in 1918.
The Waas family left for Antwerp in September 1928, where father Salomon found a job as diamond polisher and they lived in Antwerp and in Deurne. They returned to Amsterdam in April 1930 and they found room to live in with Mozes Dingsdag and his wife Alida Delden. Mozes was the brother-in-law of Hijman’s mother Debora Delden.
One month later, the Waas family moved to Ruyschstraat 75 3rd floor and in April 1935 to an upper house in the Grensstraat 9. In 1937 a relocation followed to Tilanusstraat 69 3rd floor in Amsterdam-East and in 1941 to house numbr 71 1st stock.
After his return from Belgium, Hijman was employed as a bike messenger but later he was a dealer with haberdasheries. On 2 July 1941 Hijman married in Amsterdam Selien Koperberg, who was born there on 11 September 1921 as a daughter of Philip Koperberg and Mietje Prins. She was a seamstress.
Her father survived the Holocaust by going into hiding and passed in 1955; her mother however had been deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz already on 7 August 1942 and upon arrival there on 10 August 1942 immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Hijman and Selien had a son together, Paul, who was born in Amsterdam on 24 January 1943. His wife and son survived the Shoah. In August 1946 Selien remarried and with her spouse and son she emigrated to Sydney in 1954.
Hijman wasn’t able to attend the birth of his son. Presumably in the 2nd half of 1942, he has ended up in Mauthausen, but it is unknown when and from where he was deported. The few notes on his registration card of the Jewish Council only show that Hijman Waas has died in the concentration camp Mauthausen on 15 January 1943, "as a result of a "Harnvergifung" - a kidney poisoning, also called uremia,”. Therefore, his Todfallsaufnahme – his death certificate was made out in Mauthausen on 13 January 1943 but states his death as on the 15th of January 1943.
However, on 21 February 1946 there has been officially established by order of the District Court of Amsterdam of 31 January 1946, that Hijman Waas has died in Mauthausen “at the End of December 1942”. At the website Joodse Monument only dates of death are recorded conform official Dutch certificates of death. Therefore Joods Monument states: died "December 1942".
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Salomon Waas and Philip Koperberg, archive cards of Hijman Waas and Selien Koperberg; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Hijman Waas and Selien Waas-Koperberg; website ITS Arolson, death certificate/Todfallsaufnahme from Mauthausen of Hijman Waas and the death certificate no. 591 dated 21 Februari 1946, year 1946-register 2-folio 99verso made out in Amsterdam.