Gysina de Haan, who was usually called Tina, was the eldest daughter of Asser de Haan and Rosa Vos. Both her parents were born in Amsterdam, but Gysina was born in Antwerp on 9 September 1923 and lived there till 1941. Her father started working as diamond worker and as a diamond merchant he had his own business in Antwerp. Suzanna was a seamstress and she had two younger sisters, Suzanna and Evelina.
On 24 March 1941 the De Haan family was unsubscribed from Antwerp to Plantage Kerklaan 14 1st floor in Amsterdam, where they were officially registered on 3 April. Gysina, Suzanna, Evelina and their parents Asser de Haan and Rosa Vos, lived shortly at Plantage Kerklaan with Jacob Salomon Vos, a brother of their mother. He lived there with his sisters Clara and Rachel Vos. Two weeks later the entire family De Haan moved to Rijnstraat 154 2nd floor in Amsterdam-South.
On 20 June 1943, all members of the De Haan family were arrested during the big raid, which was secretly prepared by the Germans, and carried off to Westerbork. Her father ended up there in barrack 68 and she herself and the others in barrack 65. Gysina’s father Asser de Haan as a diamond merchant was already previously exempted from deportation and tried to achieve the same in Westerbork.
These attempts resulted in negotiations with Puttkammer and in correspondence and negotiations with the “Rijksbureau voor Diamant”, (State Office for Diamonds) and whereby her sister Suzanna de Haan and she herself were released from Westerbork on 17 July 1943. They then left for Amsterdam and went to Smitstraat 36 in the Transvaal district of Amsterdam East, where their uncle Jacob de Haan lived with his family. Further archival records show that they were back in Westerbork again on October 21, 1943 and then stayed in barrack 68.
In Camp Westerbork, Tina met Kurt Hartog, who was born in Haaren near Aachen on 5 November 1919 and who ended up in Westerbork as a refugee already in November 1939. On 30 March 1944, Tina de Haan and Kurt Hartog married in Camp Westerbork and because of his marriage and as an "Old Inmate" not deported anymore and they were eventually liberated in Westerbork on 12 April 1945. After the war they emigrated to New Jersey in the USA where they had a daughter Evelyn. Gysina (Tina) passed away there in 2006 and her spouse Kurt Hartog on 1 July 2005.
Sources include the Felix Archive of Antwerp, dossier of foreigners from Antwerp no. 168681 for Asser de Haan; the City Archvive of Amsterdam, archive card of Gysina de Haan; residence card of Smitstraat 36 2nd floor in Amsterdam; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Asser de Haan, Suzanna de Haan, Gysina (Tina) de Haan and Kurt Hartog; websites Edith’s family tree I and Edith’s family tree II and the website Kurt & Tina Hartog – Bevrijdingsportretten (Dutch only).