Daniel Kan, who was usually named Danny, was the first of the three children of Willi Kan and Susannah van Minden. He was born on 30 July 1932 and lived with his parents, brother and sister – a twin – in the Den Texstraat 47 in Amsterdam.
Danny was friends with Marcel van Gestel who lived on the Lijnbaansgracht in Amsterdam. When Danny and his family were arrested by the German occupiers in the summer of 1942 and sent to Westerbork, he wrote a postcard to his friend Marcel on 22 December 1942 and the text reads:
Dear Marcel, thank you very much for everything you have sent me. The jug, the goodies, the cards. I was very happy with it. I am not allowed to write often, but I hope you do write me often. I am an orderly in the hospital. And walking with the teachers outside the camp. Many greetings, also to your parents and Peter from all of us, your Danny Kan.
Danny, his parents, brother and sister were sent from Westerbork to concentration camp Vught on 20 February 1943. His sister Betsy, brother Raphael and he himself were sent back to Westerbork on 16 July 1943 but their parents stayed behind in Vught. They only came back in Westerbork on 11 September. On 15 February 1944 Danny and his family were put on transport to Bergen Belsen and after having stayed there for more than seven months in inhumane conditions, they were all deported from there to Auschwitz on 9 October 1944.
Danny’s certificate of death shows – which was made out after the war by the Municipality of Amsterdam by order of the Dutch Ministry of Justice, that Danny lost his life in Auschwitz on 12 October 1944. Also his brother Raphael and sister Betsy at that same day. According to their certificates of death, Danny’s parents however have died in Auschwitz on 15 October 1944.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive card of Willi Kan, archive card of Daniel Kan; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Daniel Kan; certificate of death for Daniel Kan from the register A96-folio 50 no. 287 dated 28 May 1952 and the information by Mrs. M. van Gestel-Wijdeveld from Amsterdam (owner of the above mentioned postcard).