Grietje Kattenburg, a daughter of Meijer Kattenburg and Debora Garf, was born on 23 August 1883 in Amsterdam, where she married Emanuel van Moppes on 30 August 1906. He was a son of Isaac van Moppes and Schoontje Cohen and born on 18 April 1883. He was a diamond cleaver by profession.
Grietje and Emanuel had two sons together, namely Isidore Emanuel on 11 July 1907 and Floris Maurits on 20 April 1911. Emanuel was active in the diamond business and therefore stayed regularly in Antwerp in the years 1921-1924. There was a lot of work and in Antwerp he lived at Lange Nieuwstraat 129 and at Ommeganckstraat 78.
In 1923 Emanuel van Moppes had an argument with his father-in-law Meijer Kattenbug, who was the meaning that Emanual should learn the trade of dental technic too, which would enable him to earn money not only from the diamond trade. After all, Emanuel’s son Isidore Emanuel was a dentist. Emanuel rejected the idea as there was a lot of work in the diamond business in Antwerp and Emanuel even mentioned that he might wanted to stay there forever.
But the marriage of Grietje and Emanuel did not last and on 1 October 1931 they divorced in Amsterdam. Emanuel lived then still a few years in Amsterdam, moved then to Roosendaal and then to Putte (Noord Brabant) after which nothing more became known about him.
After her divorce, Grietje Kattenburg lived at Herculesstraat 33 1st floor in Amsterdam. Her 27-year old son Isidore Emanuel, dentist by profession, left Amsterdam for Den Helder to be married there on 28 August 1934 to the 24-year old Meta Edie Coltof and they had two daughters, in 1935 and 1939, both born in Amsterdam.
But on 11 September 1942 the entire family of Isidore E. van Moppes was deported to Auschwitz and on 14 September, Meta Edie Coltof and both her daughters were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Isidore Emanuel van Moppes however managed to survive Auschwitz and was able to return to Amsterdam, where he got remarried on 30 August 1946. With his new spouse he had again two children.
Grietje Kattenburt however, was admitted on 16 March 1939 for some time in the Central Israëlitic Psychiatric Hospital “Het Apeldoornsche Bosch”, where she was discharged after a stay of 11 months. On 2 February 1940 she was again in Amsterdam at 2e Jan van der Heijdestraat 38 groundfloor, but shortly thereafter, on 4 March 1940 she moved into a room at Guesthouse Jessurun, located at Van Eeghenstraat 44 upperhouse.
Her other son, Floris Maurits was a bookkeeper and since 15 June 1933 employed at the Hollandia Kattenburg Garment Factory in Amsterdam. Floris was unmarried and he lived at Leonardostraat 10 and since early November 1939 at Stadionweg 88 with his brother Isidore Emanuel and his wife Meta Edie Coltof. After the entire family of his brother was put on transport to Auschwitz on 11 September 1942 and their house was looted, Floris Maurits moved on 5 October 1942 to Guesthouse Jessurun at Van Eeghenstraat 44 upperhouse too, where his mother already lived from March 1940.
One month later, on 11 November 1942, the raid on Hollandia Kattenburg followed and also Floris Maurits van Moppes was carried off to Westerbork. A few days later, on 14 November his mother Grietje Kattenburg followed to and both were deported to Auschwitz on 30 November 1942. This transport became known as the so-called “Kattenburg transport” by which also 367 Jewish employees of the Hollandia Garment Factory of Amsterdam were deported to Auschwitz.
The transport included 826 deportees and stopped at Kozel, which is located ±80 km west from Auschwitz. There 170 boys and men between 15 and 50 year were forced to leave the train, to be deployed then as forced labourers in the surrounding labour camps of Upper Silezia. Those who remained in the train were transported onwards to Auschwitz and upon arrival there on 3 December 1942, Grietje Kattenburg has been murdered immediately in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
It is almost certain that Floris Maurits van Moppes belonged to the group of 170 men who had to leave the train at Kozel. However, it is unknown where Floris Maurits ended up and how and when he lost his life. Therefore, after the war the Dutch Ministry of Justice commissioned the Municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a certificate of death for Floris Maurits van Moppes, in which has been established that he has died on 31 March 1944 in Mid-Europe.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Meijer Kattenburg, archive cards of Grietje Kattenburg, Isidore Emanuel van Moppes, Floris Maurits van Moppes and the Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp no. 171892 for Emanuel van Moppes; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Grietje Kattenburg and Floris Maurits van Moppes; the Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the certificate of death for Floris Maurits van Moppes, nr. 539 from the A-register 93-folio 92, made out in Amsterdam on 8 February 1952.