Alida Duitz was the second eldest of the nine children of Salomon Duitz and Elisabeth Duizend. She was born on 27 February 1903 in The Hague, where her father was then a religious teacher and head of a school. In August 1905, when an older brother Louis and a younger sister Louise had also been born, the Duitz family returned from The Hague to Amsterdam where they came to live at Kazernestraat 26.
More siblings of Alida were born in Amsterdam: Henri on 8 May 1906, Simon on 29 April 1907, Joseph was born on 7 July 1908, but he died on 1 January 1926; then Herman followed on 19 January 1913 and Annie came on 4 April 1915.
Kazernestraat 26 was exchanged for Plantage Doklaan 10 in May 1911, after which the family moved to Plantage Doklaan 36 in January 1914. In May 1924, Alida lived with her family at Linneausparkweg 35 ground floor in Watergraafsmeer, where her father Salomon Duitz passed away on 8 August 1934. Not long afterwards, on 5 October 1934, Alida, her mother and her other sibs, who still lived at home, moved to Swammerdamstraat 24 ground floor in Amsterdam East.
Alida Duitz was unmarried and was employed as an office clerk at a diamond trade. This may have led to the “deferment (Rückstellung) of deportation” as stated on her registration card from the Jewish Council, because a job in the diamond industry could lead to a “Sperre”. On 11 July 1942, the Jewish Council provisionally exempted her from deportation, which lasted until 8 April 1943, as she was arrested then and taken to Westerbork. There she ended up in barrack 85, a barrack which was actually intended for people listed on the so-called Barneveld list, a total of ±600 people, but it is not known why Alida ended up in this barrack.
The Barneveld list included a group of prominent Jews who had been exempted by the Germans from Arbeitseinsatz and deportation. They were accomodated in castle 'De Schaffelaar' and villa 'De Biezen' in Barneveld. On 29 September 1943, the Barneveld group was taken to Westerbork. (translation of text from the website www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/Barneveldgroep).
Meanwhile, Alida Duitz had also obtained a so-called “Albersheim Declaration”, just like her mother Elisabeth Duitz-Duizend, her brother Henri Duitz and his wife Helene Duitz-Levie. Such a declaration could be requested for at the Jewish Council from 1 November 1942. Possession of that statement, also known as the “Palestine certificate”, would provide the opportunity to emigrate to Palestine, but this was a registration, a provisional one, which did not yet provide the certainty that emigration to Palestine would actually take place.
However, nothing helped. On 20 July 1943, Alida was deported to Sobibor. That same transport with more than 2200 other deportees also included her mother Elisabeth Duitz-Duizend and her unmarried brother Simon Duitz. Upon arrival on 23 July 1943, all were immediately murdered in the gas chambers. There were no survivors.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family registration cards Elisabeth Duitz-Duizend; archive card Alida Duitz; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Alida Duitz; the Wikipedia website Jews transports from Nederland.nl/transport 20 July 1943.