Meijer de Vries, born on 15 January 1869 in Stad-Almelo as son of Jozeph de Vries and Johanna de Bruin, married 12 February 1896 in Amsterdam the 25 year old Mietje van Coeverden, who was born on 3 March 1879 in Coevorden as a daughter of Israël van Coeverden and Hendeltje Stoppelman. The De Vries couple had six children, viz. Jozeph, Israël, Johanna, Hendrika, Sarlina and Daniël.
Meijer de Vries was a male-nurse but earned his money also as a merchant of various goods. He stayed among others in Coevorden and Rotterdam but later he lived in Amsterdam. His eldest son Jozeph was born in Coevorden, the others in Amsterdam, where he and his wife Mietje moved numerous times between 1898 and 1937. However, since March 1937 Meijer and Mietje lived at Lekstraat 24 1st floor, where Meijer de Vries passed away on 22 May 1940. He was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen.
Of the Meijer and Mietje’s children, only Johanna and Sarlina were unmarried and they lived at home with their parents and moved with them on 15 March 1937 to Lekstraat 24 1st floor. Still, one relocation followed: on 17 March 1943 Mietje de Vries-van Coeverden was registered at the address Vechtstraat 87 2nd floor – also located in the River District of Amsterdam, where since March 1937 her daughter Hendrika de Vries lived with her husband Leonard Henriques de la Fuente and their two children.
Both unmarried daughters, Johanna and Sarlina, were registered at Vechtstraat too, but were not able to move into that address: already on 16 February 1943 they have been called-up and carried off to concentration camp Vught, where they have stayed from 17 February till 7 June 1943 in block 34a. They were added as accompanists to the so-called Childrens Transport, which left on 6 and 7 June 1943 from Vught via Westerbork to Sobibor, a transport of over 3000 children and escorts.
In Vught, Johanna and Sarlina de Vries were added as escorts to this transport, which arrived on 11 June 1943 in Sobibor. Upon arrival there, all the children and accompagnists were immediately murdered in the gas chambers there, including Johanna and her sister Sarlina de Vries. There were no survivors.
The widow Mietje de Vries-van Coeverden too was called-up for transport to Vught that 16th of February 1943, however her deportation to Vught has been cancelled, as appeared from notes on her Jewish Council registration card. On a later date, on 11 May 1943, she was carried off from her last address Vechtstraat 87 2nd floor via the Hollandsche Schouwburg to Westerbork, where she was housed in barrack 62. On 18 May she was deported to Sobibor with another 2510 deportees and upon arrival there on 21 May 1843 immediately murdered in the gas chambers there. From this transport too, there were no survivors.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, birth certificate of Meijer de Vries 1869, family registration cards of Meijer de Vries, Mietje van Coeveren, Johanna de Vries, Sarlina de Vries; website stenenarchief.nl/grave Meijer de Vries; residence cards Amsterdam /Lekstraat 24 1st and Vechtstraat 87 2nd floor; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Mietje de Vries-van Coeverden, Johanna de Vries, Sarlina de Vries; website ITS Arolson/camp cards Vught of Johanna and Sarlina de Vries and the Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.