Abraham Swart was a son of Jeremias Swart and Saartje Leuw. Before he was married, Abraham was a diamond worker, but later, he had a cigar shop. 24 August 1905 Abraham Swart married in Amsterdam Sophia Swaab, a daughter of Jesajas Swaab and Eva Jacobson. The couple had four children, namely Jeremias in 1906, Sara in 1907, Jacques in 1910 and Eva in 1912.
After his marriage to Sophia Swaab, Abraham Swart lived with his wife at Blasiusstraat 144 in Amsterdam, where their first child Jeremias was born. The family moved 27 March 1906 to Vrolikstraat 279 1st floor, where their daughter Sara was born and three years later, in 1909 they moved to house number 136 2nd floor. There Jacques was born. 11 June 1912, the family moved to Ruyschstrat 54 ground floor where their 4th child Eva was born.
Abraham Swart and his wife Sophia Swaab were both exempted from deportation (“gesperrt”) until further notice "because of function" of Abraham for the Jewish Council. However during the large raid of 20 June 1943, of which the preparations were kept completely secret, both were fetched, arrested and deported to Westerbork. Abraham ended up in barrack 60 and Sophia in barrack 65.
From the notes made at the registration cards of the Jewish Council of Abraham and Sophia, it appeared that Abraham Swart had a function as cap-maker at J.C.B., the Joodse Centrale Beroepsopleiding (Jewish Central Vocational Training) at Westeinde 17 in Amsterdam. Back in the days, he worked as diamond polisher for 35 years and 11 years as cigar shopkeeper, as a “dedicated and accurate worker”. Sophia had indicated that she “could make clothes with her own hand”.
Their unmarried daughter Sara lived at home with her parents at Ruyschstraat in Amsterdam. She was a milliner and as chief she had given leadership to 20 people in the hat-branch. Her brothers Jeremias and Jacques and sister Eva were already married and lived with their families at other addresses in Amsterdam. During the “Grossaktion”, the raid of 20 June 1943, which was prepared in secret Sara was fetched, arrested and deported to Westerbork, together with her parents. She was locked in with he mother in barrack 65.
Notes on her registration card of the Jewish Council showed, that Sara, just as her parents, was exempted from deportation until further notice (“gesperrt bis auf weiteres”) because of her function too as cap-maker at J.C.B. since 15 July 1942.
Eventually, Abraham, Sophia and their daughter were put on transport 13 July 1943 to Sobibor where they were killed immediately on arrival there on 16 July 1943.
Sources: City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Abraham Swart, archive cards of Abraham Swart, Sophia Swaab and Sara Swart; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Abraham Swart, Sophia Swart-Swaab and Sara Swart.