Michel Walvis, a son of Salomon Walvis and Dina Grishaver, was born in Amsterdam on 8 June 1889. He earned his money being a market vendor of haberdasheries. He also had an education at the ANDB, the Diamond Workers Union, as a rose cutter (section 5) and brilliant polisher (section 2). His membership started on 5 May 1906, but with a few interruptions, he left for Antwerp for the 2nd time on 27 September 1919.
Meantime, Michel Walvis was already married in Amsterdam on 19 May 1909 to Duifje Kat, who was born on 4 September 1888 as a daughter of Salomon Kat and Fanny Cohen Kool. Michel and Duifje had two children, both born in Amsterdam: Dina on 11 March 1910 and Samuel on 12 October 1916.
However, the first time in Antwerp on 22 May 1913, Michel Walvis was registered there at the address Plantijnlei-Oost no.96. There lived the unmarried Hendrica van Kreeveld with her two children: Joseph, born on 20 April 1910 and Lena, born 12 March 1913. They lived there in a furnished room and Michel moved in with her and lived with her in an adulterous relationship (in boelingschap) as man and wife.
Hendrica van Kreveld, a maid and cleaning lady, who mostly worked at Wipstraat 57) was born in Amsterdam on 21 January 1892 as a daughter of Joseph Isaac van Kreeveld and Leentje Nikkelsberg. Michel’s lawful wife Duifje Kat and his little daughter Dina, then still lived at Joden Houttuinen 72 in Amsterdam.
On 22 March 1914, also Duifje Walvis-Kat and her little daughter Dina Walvis arrived in Antwerp and they lived at Korte Zavelstraat 24. Michel Walvis however stayed already since 22 May 1913 at the address Plantijnlei-Oost no.96. On 16 May1914 it was also formally established that Michel Walvis as husband and wife lived in an adulterous relationship with Hendrica van Kreeveld and had left his legal wife Duifje Kat and his child.
Duifje Kat then filed a complaint with the Antwerp Public Prosecutor’s Office against her husband whom she accused of maintaining a concubine. At that thime there had not yet been a lawsuit, but on the other hand, the Antwerp Immigration Service had also reported that the behavior of Michel Walvis and Hendrica van Kreeveld had not yet given rise to complaints or comments.
Michel, his legal wife Duifje and little daughter Dina then returned in Amsterdam in July 1914, where they could move into their old home at the address Joden Houttuinen 72 and where on 12 October 1916 their 2nd child was born, a son named Samuel.
However, soon after return in Amsterdam, Michel moved already quickly to another address in Amsterdam; since March 1915 he lived for a short time at Valkenburgerstraat. He then moved to another address every few months and from the end of 1916 he lived at Ben Viljoenstraat 3 in Amsterdam-East, where also other family and in-laws lived. Since March 1915, Michel and Duifje lived separately from each other.
On 27 September 1919, Michel left again for Antwerp to work there as a diamond worker. Duifje Kat, who stayed behind at Joden Houttuinen 72 and moved also during the mid-twenties to the Ben Viljoenstraat 3, then tried to support herself as a market vendor. She applied for and received a vendor permit and stood with her stall on the Ten Kate market with woolen goods. Later, she traded in “irregulars” and stood on among others on the markets at Lindengracht and Westerstraat.
Documents from the Antwerp Foreigner Service show, that Michel Walvis subsequentely lived for many years in Strasbourg in France and returned to Borgerhout on 11 November 1939 and then lived at the addresses Montensstraat 63 and Gitschotellei 299. From August 1940, however, he again lived in an adulterous relationship (in boelingschap) with the unmarried Vrouwtje van West, who arrived in February 1940 with her daughter Dina from Le Havre (France) at Statielei 111 in Borgerhout but moved with her daughter to Dodoensstraat 21 there in August 1940. Michel Walvis then moved in with her and Vrouwtje and Michel lived there together as husband wife in a furnished room.
Furthermore, it appeared that Michel Walvis, Vrouwtje van West and her daughter Dina van West had been deported from Mechelen to Auschwitz with convoy VI (6) on 27 August 1942. The convoy contained 1000 deportees of whom during a stop at Cosel, 80 km. west from Auschwitz, 280 men between 15 and 50 years of age were forced to leave the train, to be deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labour camps in Upper Silesia.
The remaining 720 victims, mainly women, children and some men, were transported onwards to Auschwitz and arrived there on 30 August, where they all upon arrival, including Vrouwtje van West, her daughter Dina van West and also the 53-year old Michel van West, were murdered immediately in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
After the war, the Court of First Instance of Antwerp has established by verdict no.1725 of 26 October 1956 that Michel Walvis has died between 29 August and 8 Sepember 1942 in Auschwitz. By verdict of 9 November 1956 no. 1782 was established that Vrouwtje van West and Dina van Wrest also between 29 August and 8 September 1942 have died in Auschwitz.
Sources include the ANDB membershipcard of Michel Walvis; the Dossier of Foreingners of the City of Antwerp 149632/Michel Walvis and nr. 150493 for Hendrica van Kreeveld; Dossier of Foreigners of the Municipality of Borgerhout nr. 5782/Michel Walvis; nrs. 6055/270396/Vrouwtje van West and 6056/Dina van West; City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Salomon Walvis (1867) and Michel Walvis; Archive cards of Duifje Kat, Samuel Walvis, Bloeme van West-van West/Vrouwtje van West (1901), Dina van West (1921) and Hendrica van Kreeveld; website Family Search/birth and death Michel Walvis (1889); the Memorial of the Deportation of the Belgian Jews/Convoy VI, page 23 and an addition on this website by Jair Salomon.