Moses Abram, a son of Emanuel Abram and Schoontje de Jong, was born in Amsterdam on 2 December 1891. He married Rebecca de Paauw, a daughter of Samuel de Paauw and Keetje Soubice, on 12 September 1917 in Zaandam. After the marriage took place in 1917, Moses and Rebecca moved into a house at Nieuwe Prinsengracht 50. Later they moved to Linneausparkweg 73. Moses Abram supported his family as a commercial representative and traveler in sponges.
The Abram couple had three children, namely: Emanuel on 29 August 1918, Samuel on 17 April 1920 and Schoontje on 16 September 1921, all three of whom were born at Nieuwe Prinsengracht 50. After they had moved to Linneausparkweg 73 ground floor, Moses and Rebecca lived there until their deportation. Of their children, Samuel and Schoontje survived the Holocaust; only Emanuel (usually called Mani) was murdered together with his wife Vrouwtje van Geldere on 9 July 1943 in Sobibor. Their son Robert survived the war.
The then 50-year-old Moses Abram and his 50-year-old wife Rebecca de Paauw were registered in Westerbork on 5 September 1942 and deported to Auschwitz two days later, on 7 September 1942. This transport was a so-called Cosel transport, i.e. in Cosel, a town located ±80 km west of Auschwitz, the Germans forced boys and men suitable for work - usually between 15 and 50 years old - to leave the train; they were employed as forced laborers in surrounding labor camps in Silesia.
The transport contained a total of 930 deportees, of which 110 boys and men were taken from the train in Cosel. Those who remained on the train were transported further to Auschwitz, where they were usually murdered immediately upon arrival in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
That was also the fate of Rebecca Abram-de Paauw; After leaving Westerbork on 7 September and stopping in Cosel, the transport arrived in Auschwitz on 10 September 1942. Rebecca de Paauw and many other women, children, elderly, sick and weak were immediately taken to the gas chambers and gassed.
Moses Abram was among the group of 110 men who were taken from the train in Cosel. Post-war research by the Red Cross has shown that this group in its entirety was sent from Cosel to the Niederkirch, Seibersdorf and Blechhammer camps.
Moses survived Niederkirch, Seibersdorf and Blechhammer and was sent in the end from there to Gross-Rosen on 21 January 1945 with a so-called “evacuation transport”. That transport arrived there on 2 February 1945, but Moses Abram did not make it; he either succumbed to the hardships he has already undergone and/or was shot dead by SS guards along the way.
After the war, the Ministry of Justice determined, partly based on research by the Dutch Red Cross and testimonies from survivors, that Moses Abram died in Poland on 25 January 1945. The municipality of Amsterdam was then instructed to draw up a death certificate for Moses Abram, in which this is also recorded: died in Poland on 25 January 1945.
Sources include the City Archiev of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Emanuel Abram (1867) and Moses Abram (1891); archive cards of Moses Abraham, Rebecca de Paauw, Emanuel Abram, Samuel Abram and Schoontje Abram; website openarchieven.nl/marriage Moses Abram x Rebecca de Paauw; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Moses Abram, Rebecca Abram-de Paauw, Emanuel Abram and Vrouwtje Abram-van Geldere; Amsterdam residence card/Linneausparkweg 73; the archive of the Red Cross/publication “Auschwitz III”- de Cosel period/transport Westerbork Auschwitz of 7 September 1942, edited October 1952 and the publication “Auschwitz VI, the large evacuation transports during the final period, edited March 1952, the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/transport 7 September 1942; the death certificaten r. 120 for Moses Abram, made out in Amsterdam on 28 November 1952 from the A-register-folio 22 and the website ITS Arolson/Moses Abram/death in Poland 25 January 1945.