Debora Delden was a daughter of Jacob Delden and Leentje Ossedrijver. She was born on 22 August 1897 in Amsteram and married there on 19 September 1919 the diamond polisher Salomon Waas, a son of Lion Mozes Waas and Sara Hekster; Salomon was born on 15 December 1893 in Amsterdam.
After Debora was married to Salomon, they found living space in the Blasiusstraat 95 2nd floor in Amsterdam-East. The Waas couple had three sons, namely Lion in January 1918 and in March 1920 the twin-brothers Hijman and Jacob. In September 1928 they left for Antwerp, where Salomon got employed and the family lived in Antwerp and Deurne but on 14 April 1930 they returned to Amsterdam. There they found living space in the Vrolikstraat 229 2nd stock with Debora Delden’s brother-in-law Mozes Dingsdag, who was married to her sister Alida.
One month later the Waas family moved from Vrolikstraat to Ruyschstraat 75 3rd floor and on 23 April 1935 to an upperhouse in the Grensstraat 9. In 1937 a relocation followd to Tilanusstraat 69 3rd floor in Amsterdam-East and in 1941 to house 71 1st stock, also the last known address of the Salomon Waas family in the Netherlands.
Their sons Hijman and Lion were married and lived with spouse/family not anymore in the parental home. Hijman however lost his life in Mauthausen; Lion and his wife Benvenida Henriques de la Fuente were murdered in Sobibor. Jacob Waas, Hijman’s twinbrother Jacob was still unmarried and lived at home with his parents at Tilanusstraat 71 1st floor. He was employed as a warehouse clerk and is said to have survived the Holocaust, but no further details are known.
According to notes on their registration cards of the Jewish Council, Salomon Waas and his wife Debora Delden were provisionally deferred from deportation. (See publication by Raymund Schütz “Vermoedelijk op transport”(presumably transported), chapter 3 pages 34-39 and further, from Zurückstellung to Sperre). However during the large scale raids of early October 1942, they were still arrested and carried off to Westerbork.
There, Debora Delden presumably arrived already on 3 or 4 October 1942 and immediately thereafter, on 5 October, put on transport to Auschwitz in a deportation transport of more than 2000 deportees. Upon arrival there on 8 October 1942 she was immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Salomon Waas most likely arrived in Westerbork together with his wife but for unknown reasons ended up in the penal barrack 66. Not together with his wife but a few days later, on 9 October 1942 deported to Auschwitz in a transport of more than 1700 persons. Upon arrival there ±12 October, Salomon Waas has been selected as a forced labourer. It is unknown where he ended up and what kind of “work” he had to do. What is known is that the conditions to work there were heavy and inhumane and also how many prisoners died by hardship there.
The exact date of death of Salomon Waas is unknown. It is therefore that after the war, the Dutch Authorities have established, also based on testimonials of survivors and research, that he no longer could be alive after 31 January 1943. Then the Municpality of Amsterdam was commissioned to draw up an official certificate of death for Salomon Waas, in which is established that he has died in Auschwitz on 31 January 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Jacob Delden (1879) and Salomon Waas, archive cards of Debora Delden, Salomon Waas, Lion, Hijman and Jacob Waas; some residence cards of Amsterdam; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Debora Waas-Delden, Salomon Waas, Lion Waas, Benvenida Waas-Henriques de la Fuente, Hijman Waas, Selien Waas-Koperberg and Jacob Waas; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the certificate of death nr. 66 dated 24 Nov 1950 for Salomon Waas from the A-register 59-folio 12v.