Eva de Bruin was the youngest of the four children of Simon de Bruin and Hester Ligtenstein. She married Joseph Waas, a leather worker and son of Juda Waas and Betje Schelvis on 4 June 1941 in Amsterdam. The couple lived at Staalstraat 13 I in Amsterdam. Their marriage remained childless.
Since 20 August 1941 Eva was employed at the textile factory of Hollandia Kattenburg. To prevent that Germans would take over the company, the Jewish board stepped down in November 1940 and had the company led by non-Jewish administrators. Nevertheless, the German occupiers placed the company under German administration through a “Verwalter”. The factory produced also for the German Wehrmacht, reason why Jews at Hollandia were exempted from transport, just as their families. They had an economic value. But in 1942, the number of Jews that had to be delivered as commissioned by Berlin, was not big enough in Holland. The SS-man Rauter, who was responsible for it, succeeded in making a part of the Jews of Hollandia Kattenburg suspicious. 130 of the 367 Jewish workers were arrested for so-called sabotage and transferred to the prison at Scheveningen. There they were mistreated in such a way that they confessed their “crimes” although they did not committed any of the accusations.
It appeared from notes on the registration card of Eva Waas-de Bruin, that she too was falsely accused of sabotage so she ended up that night of 11 November 1942 in the prison of Scheveningen. Only 26 November she was transferred to Westerbork and in the context of so-called “family runification” with her husband Joseph Waas locked in in barrack 72. Joseph was taken previously to Westerbork and stayed since 12 November already there. Notes on his registration card show, that on 23 November 1942 he had requested in Westerbork “to wait for his wife”, however she appeared to be a “penal case” and therefore “waiting was not possible”. Request denied.
30 November 1942 the so-called Kattenburg-transport left for Auschwitz and included 826 deportees, of whom 367 Jewish workers of Hollandia Kattenburg. This transport stopped at Kozesl, located about 80 km. west from Auschwitz, where 170 men between 15 and 50 years were forced to leave the train, to be employed as forced laborers in the surrounding satellite camps of Auschwitz. It is thinkable that Joseph Waas has belonged to that group. It is not known were he ended up in the end, but he lost his life somewhere in Mid Europe, presumably in March 1944. His date of death therefore has been established officially as 31 March 1944.
Those, who stayed back in the train, were transported to Auschwitz to be killed there on arrival. Of this transport, only 9 persons survived the Shoah. But not Eva Waas-de Bruin. On arrival in Auschwitz she and many others were killed immediately on 3 December 1942.
Sources: City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Eva de Bruin and Joseph Waad; website Joods Amsterdam; the book “Ondergang” by Dr. J.Presser, 1965 volume 1, page 308; list of Jew transports from the Netherlands and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Eva de Brfuin-Waas and Josep Waas.