Johanna de Wit was the 2nd of the six children of Philip de Wit and Aaltje Tammerijn and was born on 9 August 1893 in Rotterdam. She married the widower of Keetje Levie, Nathan van Straten in Rotterdam on 16 May 1923, who was born on 18 October 1894 in Rotterdam as a son of Samuel van Straten and Sientje Stranders.
Nathan van Straten was previously married to Keetje Levie, who was born in Rotterdam on 2 February 1889 as a daughter of Magchiel Levie and Alida Slagter. They married on 13 April 1921 and had a daughter Sientje on 19 November 1921. However, Keetje passed away just after the birth of Sientje on 25 November 1931 and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery Toepad in Rotterdam. The baby Sientje van Straten died not long after her birth: she died on 8 December 1931 only 19 days old.
With his 2nd spouse Johanna de Wit, Nathan van Straten had three children, namely Samuel in 1925, Philip in 1926 and Sientje in 1928. Nathan was butcher by trade and lived in Rotterdam at the address Hang 9, located near the Steigersgracht and not too far from the Blaak in the so-called “Stadsdriekhoek”(City Triangel) and the Maritime District. In October 1926 the family moved to house no. 62 and on 31 March 1933 they moved into a house at the Middellandplein 23b. During the mandatory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands, the family was registered at the Jewish Council at the address Schietbaanlaan 8a in Rotterdam.
On 29 July 1942, Nathan van Straten and his family received a special exemption from the Jewish Council: Nathan and also his son Samuel were butchers and as such working in the chain of food supply. His business was classified by the Germans as a “Jewish Place” were only Jews were allowed to buy. And because of the “Sperre” of Nathan and Samuel (Lok-Z), his wife Johanna, Philip and Sientje were also exempted from deportation for the time being. However, the exemption turned out to be short-lived: already on 23 September 1942, the family was carried off to Westerbor and two days later, on 25 September deported to Auschwitz.
The transport with 928 deportees in total, arrived in Auschwitz a few days later, where Nathan and his sons Samuel and Philip on arrival at the “Rampe”(platform) get through the selection. They were put to work as forced labourers the 28th of September 1942 and had to “work” there as slaves under inhumane conditions. Nathan’s wife and daughter, Johanna van Straten-de Wit and the 14-year old Sientje van Staten however were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau on 28 September 1942.
The recent possibility to get digitally access to the so-called “Sterbebücher” of Auschwitz (death registers) showed that the 17 year old Samuel van Straten was murdered on 26 October 1942. The death register of Auschwitz also indicates the date on which his 16-year old brother Philip van Straten wsa killed there: that was on 4 November 1942. Unfortunately, the actual date of death of Nathan van Straten cannot be found in these (incomplete) registers.
After the war, when the above was not yet known, it was established by the Dutch authorities on the basis of survivor’s testimonies, that Nathan van Straten and his sons Samuel and Philip could no longer be alive after 31 January 1943. The Municipality of Rotterdam was then commissioned to draw up death certificates in which it was officially established that Nathan van Straten, Samuel van Straten and Philip van Straten had died in Auschwitz on 31 January 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card of Nathan van Straten; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Nathan van Straten, Johanna van Straten-de Wit and Samuel, Philip and Sientje van Straten; the website hetstenenarchief.nl/grave Keetje Levie (1st spouse of Nathan v. Staten); Publication "Vermoedelijk op Transport/special exemptions/Jewish Place/Lok-Z, page 43 onwards; website Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau/Auschwitz Prisoners; wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit nederland.nl and the certificates of death for Nathan van Straten nr. 3260, for Philip van Straten nr. 3261 and for Samuel van Straten nr. 3262, made out by the Municipality of Rotterdam on 21 December 1950.