Zacharias Pront was a son of Abraham Pront and Rachel Katwijk. He was born on 7 July 1924 in Antwerp and he became a machine fitter by profession. Until September 1940 they remained living in Belgium at their last address Bixschotellaan 155 in Berchem. Then they moved over to Amsterdam again and came living in the Vrolikstraat 249 and in May 1941 Zacharias moved with his parents to Ruyschstraat 95 3rd stock in Amsterdam. About his sister, Jacoba Pront, who was born in Amsterdam in 1921, nothing further is known; probably she survived the war in Belgium.
On 22 July 1942, Zacharias was summoned for the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz”, but due to “Militairy”, as taken down at the Jewish Council registration cards of his parents, (MIL), he presumably has been postponed from that call for the “Arbeitseinsatz”, but not for long as on 5 October 1942 he and his mother Rachel Pront-Katwijk were put on transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz.
Upon arrival on 8 October 1942, his mother was immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz Birkenau, but Zacharias most likely belonged to the group of 550 deportees, who were forced to leave the deportation train during a stop at Kozel, located ±80 km west from Auschwitz; they then were deployed in the surrounding labour camps of Upper Silezia put to work as forced labourers.
Not known is where Zacharias then ended up. But considering the fact that he was a machine fitter, it might have been possible that he was put to work somewhere for the German arm industry. However, it is not possible to determine with certainty whether Zacharias ended up in one of the large concentration camp complexes or in an "Arbeitskommando", with the question of where and in which "Command".
At the other hand, it may be supposed that Zacharias Pront in January 1945 - (the so-called end period) – has been sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar with one of the so-called large evacuation transports from the Auschwitz complex (dutch language), to which many subcamps belonged, such as Gross Rosen and Blechhammer.
One of those evacuation transports left the Auschwitz complex on 21 January 1945: on foot from the Arbeitskommando Blechammer to the Gross Rosen concentration camp, arriving there on 2 February 1945. Five days later, on 7 February, this transport continued by train to Weimar and the camp Buchenwald, arrivals on 9 and 10 February 1945.
After the war, the Dutch Red Cross received several testimonies from survivors and also conducted their own research into the fate of the many victims. According to data from the Information Office of the Dutch Red Cross, which are derived from the “Sterbeurkunde”, Zacharias Pront died on 23 February 1945 in the Weimar-Buchenwald concentration camp. The Ministry of Justice subsequently commissioned the Municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate in which it was established that Zacharias Pront died on 23 February 1945 in Weimar-Buchenwald.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Abraham Pront and Zacharias Pront (with info of column 35); the Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, no.172469 imaged 692-700; certificate of death made out in Amsterdam on 6 July 1950, nr. 196 for Zacharias Pront from the A-register 41-folio 34 verso and the Dutch Red Cross publication from March 1952 “Auschwitz volume VI- the Great Evacuation Transports.