Mozes Verdoner, a diamond worker by profession and a son of Meijer Verdoner and Schoontje Glasoog, married Rebecca Ritmeester on 14 October 1909 in Amsterdam. She was born there on 4 July 1885 and Mozes on 8 April 1881.
After the wedding which took place in 1909, Mozes and Rebecca lived at Tweede Jan Steenstraat 90 2nd floor. Two years later, the first of seven moves followed until they came to live at Tweede Boerhaavestraat 53 1st level in Amsterdam-East on 18 October 1938, which would also become their last known address in the Netherlands.
Mozes and Rebecca had three children, namely: Jacob in August 1910, Meijer in April 1914 and Rachel in October 1916. Rachel survived the war, just like her brother Jacob, who, as a 29-year-old, married 24-year-old Dina Wegloop, a daughter of Salomon Wegloop and Sara Peeper on 5 June 1940. After the wedding, they lived at Holendrechtstraat 42 ground floor until November 1940 and then at Tugelaweg 1 2nd floor in Amsterdam-East. Both survived the war and died in Amsterdam in the nineties.
Nothing further is known about Rachel Verdoner. All that is known from the Amsterdam archives is that she was registered in the Population Register on 26 July 1943 as V.O.W. – Departed, Unknown, Where to. It is not impossible that Rachel has previously left "to an unknown destination", usually a euphemism for going into hiding.
Meijer was the only one of the three Verdoner children who fell victim to the Nazis. Meijer, the middle of the three, was a traveling window dresser by profession. He was unmarried and lived at home with his parents at Tweede Boerhaavestraat 53 1st floor in Amsterdam. His father, Mozes Verdoner, passed away there on 23 August 1942 and did not have to experience the deportations. Meijer, his mother Rebecca Ritmeester and sister Rachel, stayed behind, where Meijer and his mother were arrested on 20 April 1943 and taken to Westerbork.
Rebecca Verdoner-Ritmeester ended up there in barrack 65; This former women's barracks was also known as a penal barrack. She and her son Meijer Verdoner were deported to Sobibor on 27 April 1943. The transport lists of that date showed that they were not “Häftlinge” (prisoners/penal cases), nor an “addition to the normal transport” or to the so-called “penal transport”. All 1204 victims who arrived in Sobibor on 30 April 1943, including Rebecca Vedoner-Ritmeester and her son Meijer Verdoner, were murdered in the gas chambers that same day.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Meijer Verdoner (1848) and Mozes Verdoner (1881); archive cards of Mozes Verdoner, Rebecca Ritmeester, Meijer Verdoner, Jacob Verdoner, Rachel Verdoner and Dina Wegloop; residence card Amsterdam/Holendrechtstraat 42/Jacob Verdoner; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Rebecca Verdoner-Ritmeester, Meijer Verdoner, Jacob Verdoner, Dina Verdoner-Wegloop and Rachel Verdoner; Death certificate no. 531 dated 23 August 1942 made out in Amsterdam for Mozes Verdoner, year 1942- book 10-folio 89verso and the Wikipedia website Jodenstransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the transport list of 27 April 1943 as published in the book Extermination Camp Sobibor by Jules Schelvis.