Hermanus Vet, born 11 March 1893 in Amsterdam, was a son of Eliazar Vet and Elizabeth Kijzer and he was “clothes presser” by profession. On 4 January 1923 he married in Amsterdam the tailor Rosetta Vorst, born 29 May 1890 in Amsterdam as daughter of Philip Vorst and Koosje Wagenaar. The parents of Hermanus Vet and of his wife Rosetta Vorst however had passed away already before the war.
After his wedding in 1923, Hermanus and his wife Rosetta lived in with his father Eliazar Vet at Jonas Daniel Meijerplein 11, from where they moved to Plantage Badlaan 18 parterre in Amsterdam in 1933. Both were born into families with several children: Hermanus had two other brothers and two sisters, who were all killed during the Shoah. His wife Rosetta had three other sisters and three brothers who all have been killed too during the Holocaust. Hermanus and Rosetta themselves had no children.
At the time of the large scale raids by the Germans of early October 1942 in Amsterdam, Hermanus Vet and his wife Rosette Vorst were taken from their home and via the Hollandsche Schouwburg carried off to Westerbork, where they arrived at some point between 3 and 5 October 1942. In the night of 12/13 October they were still present in Westerbork but on 16 October, they were both deported to Auschwitz.
The transport of 16 October 1942 contained more than 1700 deportees and made a stop at Kozel, a place located ± 80 km west from Auschwitz, where 570 boys and men between 15 and 50 years of age were forced to leave the train. They were all deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labour camps of Auschwitz. However, those, who remained in the train were transported onwards to Auschwitz to be killed there.
Also Hermanus Vet belonged to this group of 570 men. It appeared only in 2015 that he eventually ended up as Jewish forced labourer in the "Reichs Autobahnlager St. Annaberg” in Upper Silesia in Poland. After the war, it was known that Hermanus Vet had not survived the Shoah, but not where, when and under what circumstances he had lost his life. Therefore, on order of the Ministry of Justice after the war, the City of Amsterdam had drawn up a certificate of death for Hermanus Vet, in which was established that he has died on 31 March 1944 in Mid Europe.
However, during the research in 2015 in Poland to victims of among others the labour camp “Reichs Autobahnlager St.Annaberg” in Upper Silesia, several certificates of death were found, including those of Hermanus Vet. This document showed that he has died 7 December 1942 labour camp St.Annaberg. On the death certificate is mentioned as official cause of death “right-sided pneumonia and general body weakness” (rechtsseitige Lungenentzündung und allgemeine Körperschwäche).
By establishing the date of death of Hermanus Vet however, the official Dutch date of death and place of 31 March 1944 in Mid Europe is maintained, a juridical date and place established after the war by the Dutch Department of Justice.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive card of Hermanus Vet, archive card of Rosetta Vorst; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Hermanus Vet and Rosetta Vet-Vorst; website Joods Amsterdam/streets/Jonas Daniel Meijerplein 11; website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland; death certificate for Hermanus Vet from Amsterdam, Register 3 of year1966–fol.3v dated 3 March 1966 and Edward Haduch, Kedzierzyn-Kozle (Poland),the certificate of death of Hermanus Vet from the Peoples Registry (Standesamt) Annaberg.