Hartog Blits was the son of Simon Blits and Anna Sealtiel and was born 4 February 1914 in Amsterdam. Hartog was a barber, traded in perfumery and was also a diamond worker. On 22 June 1938 he married Sara Klijnkramer, also named Celine, a daughter of Abraham Klijnkramer and Anna van der Bijl. She was born 23 December 1915 in Amsterdam and worked there as seamstress.
Since their weddingday, Hartog and Sara lived at President Steijnplantsoen 8 parterre in Amsterdam-East but moved 12 Septembe 1939 to Afrikanerplein 13 1st floor in the Transvaal district of Eastern Amsterdam.
Hartog and Sara were called 16 July 1942 for the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz” (provision of additional work in Germany), by call-number 2910 and 2911. However, the transport lists of 19 July 1942 “Amsterdam Central Station to Westerbork” show that they were put on that list but that their names were deleted from that list for unknown reasons. They were not taken away to Westerbork then. The registration cards of the Jewish Council then show, that Hartog and Sara were carried off to concentration camp Vught on 23 July 1943.
Sara Blits-Klijnkramer appears to have been deported on 15 November 1943 from Vught to Auschwitz with a direct transport. On arrival there on 18 November she apparently was still selected to perform forced labor. The circumstances there were inhumane and at some point, Sara lost her life there, but it is not known exactly on what date and under what circumstances she died. Therefore, after the war, the Dutch Ministry of Justice ordered the Municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a certificate of death for Sara Blits-Klijnkramer, in which it was established that she has died in Auschwitz on 31 January 1944.
On the other hand, Hartog Blits appears to have undergone medical treatment in November 1943 and notes on his registration card from the Jewish Council show, that he had been admitted to the C.I.Z. (Central Israelitic Hospital) in Amsterdam, but that he was back again in Vught on 15 November. It is not known whether Hartog was still employed from Vught in one of the External Commands of Vught. With another 598 deportees, he was eventually deported to Westerbork on 21 March 1944 and sent to Auschwitz on 23 March, where he too might has been deployed as forced labourer on arrival there on 26 March 1944.
Hartog Blits eventually survived the horrors of Auschwitz and was able to return to Amsterdam, where he ended up at Jacob Obrechtstraat 92 on 19 December 1945, where the C.I.Z. hospital was reopened after the liberation in 1945. Hartog was offered relief there as a survivor of the concentration camps. However, Hartog Blits passed away on 30 March 1946 as a result of the hardships in Auschwitz.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Hartog Blits and Sara Klijnkramer; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Hartog Blits and Sara Blits-Klijnkramer; the archive of the Dutch Red Cross, transport list of 19 July 1942 Amsterdam C.S to Westerbork; the Wikipedia list of Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland; death certificate 238 dated 14 Sep1951 from the A-register 86, folio 41 verso for Sara Klijnkramer, death certificate 557 dated 1 Apr1946 from register 4 of 946, folio 94 for Hartog Blits and the Wikipedia website Centraal Israelitisch Ziekenhuis.