Caroline Caneel from Woensel was a daughter of Betje Caneel and an unknown father. On 19 November 1931 she married in Eindhoven Philippus Hartog from Zonnemaire, a village located at Schouwen-Duiveland in the province of Zeeland, a son of Marinus Hartog and Aaltje Voshol. From this marriage two children were born: in 1936 Marius and in 1940 Herman.
Caroline Caneel and her son Marius arrived already in 1939 in Rotterdam but the marriage with Philippus Hartog did not last. On 14 June 1940 the divorce was pronounced which was registered on 11 October 1940 in the registeres of marriages and divorces of Eindhoven. Of her ex-husband Philippus Hartog and her son Marius Hartog is nothing heard and known anymore.
After the verdict of her divorce in June 1940, her son Herman Hartog was born on 19 Augustus 1940 in Rotterdam and presumably in 1941, after her divorce, Caroline married again to Maurits van Dam, a son of Levie van Dam and Duifje van der Sluis, with whom she had a daughter Betje Jeanette, born in September 1942 .
Caroline Caneel, Maurits van Dam, her son Herman Hartog and her daughter Betje Jeanette lived in the Dirk Smitsstraat 50 in Rotterdam till the moment that all were sent to Kamp Westerbork. Caroline and her family members werd registered there on 10 April 1943. Caroline and presumably also her little daughter Betje Jeanette stayed in barack 57; her son Herman Hartog and her husband Maurits van Dam in barack 73. On 14 September all were deported to Auschwitz where they arrived on 17 September 1943.
Her husband Maurits was selected to do hard labor in Monowitz/Buna, from where he was sent to Birkenau on 30 November 1943 and where he was killed the next day, 1 December 1943. Caroline, her son Herman Hartog and daughter Betje Jeanette were killed immediately upon arrival in Auschwitz on 17 September 1943.
City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card of Caroline Caneel; The Brabant Historical Information Centre (BHIC) the certificates of wedding and divorce of Caroline Caneel and Philippus Hartog; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Caroline van Dam-Caneel, Herman Hartog, Maurits van Dam and Betje Jeanette van Dam and an addition of a visitor of the website.