Diamond cutter Mozes Pam was born on 27 May 1867 in Amsterdam as a son of Albert Pam and Betje Kloot. He married Sophia Lionni on 21 April 1898 in Amsterdam, who was born there on 17 January 1869 as a daughter of Levie Lionni and Eva van Praag. Mozes and Sophia had one son, Leonard Albert Pam, who was born on 5 March 1905, survived the war and married Leisbeth Hamstra in 1946.
After Mozes and Sophia got married in 1898, they changed their address at least again 7 times. Their son Leonard was born when they lived at Blasiusstraat 42. In May 1933 they moved to Noorder Amstellaan 42 1st floor, after which they moved again to Uiterwaardenstraat 142 in March 1941 and to Hunzestraat 35, where Sophia Lionni died on March 6, 1942.
An Amsterdam police report of 8 October 1942 reveals that a co-resident of Hunzestraat 35 I had tried the day before to take her own life by gas asphyxia, but failed. The report also shows that the gas went through the 1st to the 2nd floor, as a result of which the main resident of the 2nd floor did die by gas suffocation. Due to the gas, Mozes Pam as a lodger on that 2nd floor, passed out; he was found and transferred to the N.I.Z. the Dutch Israelitic Hospital. On 9 November 1942, he was accomodated in “Rusthuis Agsteribbe”,a resthome which was located at Nieuwe Heerengracht 159.
Mozes Pam was taken on 8 February 1943 with a so-called “Krankentransport”(sick transport) from the Panamakade (the Panamakade and Borneokade in De Rietlanden) in Amsterdam to Westerbork, where he was possibly housed in the sick barracks. A striking detail from the transport list of 8 February 1943 is, that from Nieuwe Heerengracht 33 and 159 and at least a dozen other Amsterdam addresses where rest homes and old people's homes were located, "sick and elderly people", with or without escort, were collected to be transported to Westerbork.
On 2 March 1943, Mozes Pam was deported from Westerbork in the first transport to Sobibor. This transport was still done with passenger cars. The transport contained a total of 1105 victims, who were immediately murdered in the gas chambers on arrival on 5 March 1943, also included the 75-year-old Mozes Pam.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family cards Levie Lionni (1839) and Mozes Pam (1867); archive cards of Mozes Pam, Sophia Lionni, Leonard Albert Pam and Leisbeth Hamstra; Police reports Amsterdam 8 October 1942; the archives of the Red Cross/transport list for patient transport Panamakade 8 February 1943; Magazine “Ons Amsterdam” of May 2010/”from Rietlanden to Westerbork” (Dutch language only) and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Sophia Lionni.