Biography

About Maurits van Dam

Maurits van Dam, born in 1908 was a son of Duifje van der Sluis.  1-1/2 year later, his mother married Levie van Dam on 30 March 1910 and Maurits was legalized then by both parents.

Maurits was born in a family with eleven children. Of them three were killed in the Shoah: he self, his little brother Hartog and sister Sibilla. Of the other children is known that they have died at a young age ór they might have survived the war. Due to the divorce of his parents, Hartog and Sibilla lived with their mother Duifje van der Sluis in Den Haag; Maurits lived at various addresses in Rotterdam but per 22 March 1938 he was registered at the address Goudsestraat 31b in Rotterdam, where he lived in.

Presumably in 1941, Maurits van Dam married Caroline Caneel, a daughter of Betje Caneel and an unknown father. Caroline was previously married to Philippus Hartog but from him divorced in 1940. She had two sons; of Marius born in 1936 nothing is known but her son Herman, born in August 1940, stayed with her and became a member of the Maurits van Dam family where in September 1942 still a daughter Betje Jeanette was born.

Maurits and his family lived in the Dirk Smitsstraat 50 in Rotterdam till the moment they were all sent to Camp Westerbork. There they were registered on 10 April 1943 and Maurits with his stepson Herman Hartog stayed in barack 73; Caroline and presumably also Betje Jeanette in barack 57. On 14 September they were all deported to Auschwitz, where Caroline, Herman Hartog and Betje Jeanette were killed immediately upon arrival there on 17 Septembe 1943.

According data from the registration card of the Jewish Council, Maurits van Dam was selected to do hard labor in Monowitz/Buna. On 30 Novemer he was sent from there to Birkenau where he was killed the next day, on 1 December 1943.

City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of Levie van Dam, Maurits van Dam and Caroline Caneel; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Maurits van Dam, Caroline van Dam-Caneel, Herman Hartog and Betje Jeanette van Dam.