Mozes Droomer was the fourth child of Benjamin Droomer and Jetje Wallig. He was born on 13 May 1894 in Rotterdam. His father, born in 1864 in Sommelsdijk, arrived already in 1874 with his parents in Rotterdam. His mother was born in 1864 in Den Haag and married in Rotterdam on 16 November 1887 to Benjamin Droomer, who passed away already in 1904. Jetje Wallig died in 1938.
In the Droomer family, seven children were born, of whom one stillborn son in 1895. Mozes had two other sisters: in 1889 Mietje, in 1891 Helena and three other brothers, namely Nathan in 1893, Jozeph in 1897 and Izaak in 1900. Jozeph Droomer died in childhood, almost 3 years old and on the day of his death, the youngest child Izaak was born. He married in 1933 a non-Jewish spouse and probably due to his mixed marriage he might have survived the war.The other Droomer children were killed during the Shoah.
Mozes Droomer worked as draper and shop assistant. He married Alida Jacobs in Rotterdam on 1 July 1925, a daughter of the musician Louis Jacobs and Jeannette Walvis, who had been registered with their family in the Population Register of Rotterdam again on 27 April 1917 after leaving Leiden. Alida was born on 2 September 1894 in Rotterdam. The Droomer-Jacobs family had one daughter, Jetty, born on 7 September 1926.
After the wedding, Mozes and Alida moved into a house on that 1st of July 1925 in the Jonker Fransstraat 31b, where after one year their daughter Jetty was born. On 27 March 1928 they moved to Agniesestraat 19a, on 17 March 1933 to Katshoek 8b, then to Hofdijk 41b on 1 February 1935 and in the end to Vlaggemaststraat 39b per 10 October 1936.
In the beginning of the summer of 1942, Mozes Droomer, his wife Alida Jacobs and their 16-year old daughter Jetty were registered in Wsterbork. Perhaps they had responded to the call for the so-called “provision of additional work in Germany”, the “Arbeitseinsatz”. On 31 July 1942, they were already taken from Rotterdam to Westerbork and deported to Auschwitz on 3 August. About three days later, ± the 6th of August at arrival in Auschwitz, all three of them were selected for “work” in the camp.
The registers of Auschwitz-Birkenau have not revealed where and when exactly they have lost their lives there. It is now known that the circumstances there were inhumane. Therefore, the Dutch Ministry of Justice ordered the Municipality of Rotterdam after the war, to draw up certificates of death for Mozes Droomer, Alida Droomer-Jacobs and Jetty Droomer, in which is established that they have died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
A testimony of 15 September 1945 by a Miss or Mrs Bora Brandel, then residing at Ceintuurbaan 99 in Rotterdam, which has been taken down on Jetty’s registration card from the Jewish Council file cabinet, show that Jetty Droomer has died in the summer of 1942. An exact date however is unknown.
With the date of September 30, 1942, it must be taken into account that this is a legal date, established by the Dutch government after the war, but that the actual date of death was not known at that time and may have occurred at an earlier time. From testimonies of survivors who were familiar with the circumstances there, it has been established that the date of September 30, 1942 should be read as “possibly still alive on September 29, 1942, but not later than 30 September 1942.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of Benjamin Droomer, Louis Jacobs and Mozes Droomer; the wedding certificate from Rotterdam for Mozes Droomer/Alida Jacobs; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Mozes Droomer, Alida Droomer-Jacobs and Jetty Droomer and the certificates of death, made out in Rotterdam on 30 June 1950 for Mozes Droomer, Alida Droomer-Jacobs and Jetty Droomer, inventory 1950V2-folio 056v – 082 and 056, deeds no’s 1577, 1730 and 1576.