Martin Isidoor Knorringa, the youngest of the two children of Sallie and Jenette Knorringa, has survived the Holocaust. From archives of the Jewish Council it appears that he was taken to Westerbork at the time of the large-scale round-ups of 3-5 October 1942 and that he was deported to Auschwitz from Westerbork on 23 October 1942. On arrival there on ±26 October 1942 he was selected for forced labour and got the number A-5530 tattooed on his left arm. Martin Knorringa then was still unmarried.
A “Report of Findings” from the Board of the Dutch Red Cross, sent to the Secretary of the Advisory Committee on Persecuted / War Victims in Arnhem in May 1971, shows the fate, as Martin Knorringa had to undergo: “Martin Knorringa was arrested on 2 October 1942 and then carried off to Westerbork. From there he was deported to Auschwitz on 23 October 1942. He stayed in numerous labor camps in Oberschlesien. On 9 February 1945 he was evacuated to Buchenwald where he was liberated on 11 April 1945. From 14 February 1945, after arriving from Gross Rosen in Buchenwald, he was treated for frozen feet until about 25 February 1945.”
After the war was ended, Martin Isidoor Knorringa was able to return to the Netherlands, where he was taken care of by the family Okken in Drenthe. Martin Knorringa however stayed shortly in the Netherlands after the war; he left for Israël but later returned to the Netherlands, where he passed away in 2015.
Sources among others: the file cabinet of the Jewish Counci, registration card of Martijn Knorringa and the ITS Arolson Archives, registrations of Martin Knorringa in Buchenwald and Gross Rosen; the Report of Findings from the Dutch Red Cross of 1971 and additions by his children, M. Knorringa and J. Knorringa.