Hartog de Wit was a son of Philip de Wit and Aaltje Tammerijn and was born in Rotterdam on 14 October 1896. He made a living as dealer and merchant and on 21 September 1921 he married in Hoogeveen Saartje van Buuren, who was born there on 18 December 1893 as a daughter of Abraham van Buuren and Leentje van der Veen. The couple had two children, namely Aaltje in 1923 and Abraham David in 1928.
Saartje however, left Hoogeveen for Amsterdam on 11 January 1913 and she started working as a nurse. She then lived at the address Amstel 130, where also the Commercial Printer Manheim was located. On 5 January 1914, Saartje moved over to Rotterdam.
After the wedding was concluded in Hoogeveen, Hartog stayed there with his Saartje til 15 October 1921. Then he returned with his newly wed bride to Rotterdam where they came to love at Nieuwe Binnenweg 394b. They moved about seven more times and lived more than a year at the Bergse Linker Rottedkade 38c near Hillegersberg. They then moved on 7 June 1940 to the Rochussenstraat 305 where they lived in with a family and moved into a house in the Allard Piersonstraat 30d on 17 October 1940, which would turn out to be also their last known address in the Netherlands.
On 29 July 1942 Hartog, his wife Saartje and their children Aaltje and Abraham David were registered with the Jewish Council. As a dealer, Hartog de Wit certainly would have made attempts to defy the anti-Jewish measures, instituted by the Germans, which he failed to do. As a result, Hartog de Wit was arrested together with his wife Saartje and their son Abraham David by the Rotterdam police on 24 February 1943 for “a violation of a regulation of the Reichs Kommissar for the Occupied Dutch Territories” (Arthur Seyss Inquart). It was not mentioned which violation would have been commited.
Hartog and Saartje were locked up in the Rotterdam prison at Noordsingel and Bergstraat. In addition to remaining in use as a normal prison, it was also uses as a prison for black traders and members of the resistance during the German occupation of the Netherlands. On 1 March 1943, Hartog and Aaltje were transferred the the Sicherheits Dienst in Rotterdam and on 20 March they were deported from the prison in Rotterdam to Westerbork.
The 14-year-old Abraham David de Wit apparently could not be charged. The next day, on 25 February 1943, he was sent to the Israelitic Orphanage at the Mathenesserlaan 208. This was a Jewish Orphanage in Rotterdam that existed from 1833 to 1943, and was known as Megadle Jethomim or Rotterdam Israelitic Orphanage. On 26 February 1943 Abraham David de Wit and some other orphans from the orphanage were deported via Loods 24 to Westerbork and registered there on 27 February.
Abraham David’s sister Aaltje, nearly 20 year of age, was arrested only on 13 March 1943. According to the address mentioned on her detainee form, she then lived at Gouwstraat 56 in the District of Oud Charlois of Rotterdam and she worked as an apprentice nurse. After being arrested, she ended up in prison from where the was sent to Westerbork on 29 March 1943.
Hartog de Wit and his wife Saartje van Buuren were also carried off that 29th of March 1943 from the Rotterdam prison to Camp Westerbork, where they ended up in barrack 60. Whether their children stayed with them in the same barrack or not, is unknown. Then, after this so-called “family reunion” it took until 13 July 1943 till they still were deported to Sobibor. On arrival there on 16 July 1943 they were immediately muredered in the gas chambers.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registrion card of Hartog de Wit, detainee cards of Hartog de Wit, Saartje van Buuren, Aaltje de Wit and Abraham David de Wit; the Wikipedia website Joods Weeshuis Rotterdam; website Joodsamsterdam.nl/straatnaam Amstel 130; website oorlogslevens.nl/search page; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Hartog de Wit, Saartje de Wit-van Buuren, Aaltje de Wit and Abraham David de Wit.