Biography

About Zacharias van Moppes.

Zacharias van Moppes, who was born on 25 June 1879 in Amsterdam, was a son of Isaac van Moppes and Schoontje Cohen. He had 7 other siblings, namely Levie from 1875, who left with his parents for London in 1903 and of whom nothing is further known; Rosaline from 1876, who married in 18978 Jesaia (Jacques) Hamburg but already widowed in 1924 and who passed away in Haarlem in 19072; Rachel from 1878, who got married in Amsterdam on 29 October 1903 to Ruben van Dam from Borgerhout and after the wedding moved with him to Belgium.

Then there was Meijer born in 1881, who left for London in 1902 too; Emanuel from 1883, who was married to and divorced from Grietje Kattenburg, but of whom after 1936 nothing became known of him anymore; Maria from 1884, who was married to Jonas Morell in 1912 and Abraham from 1887, who was officially unsubscribed from the Peoples Registry of Amsterdam to America and of whom nothing further is known. As the last child there was a son David, born in 1889 but who died already after two months in childhood.

Zacharias van Moppes, diamond worker by profession, married 14 February 1902 in Amstrdam the in London born Bella Stibbe, born 7 January 1877, a daughter of Samuel Stibbe and Marianne Schaapwol and already on 14 December 1901 their daughter Jeannette was born in Amsterdam. The Van Moppes family lived at Sint Antoniebreestraat, at Gelderschekade, at Nieuwe Prinsengracht and at Grensstraat, before they moved in 1920 to Borgerhout. There Jeannette married her first cousin Hendrik (Henri) van Dam on 21 August 1929, who was a son of her father’s sister Rachel van Moppes, who was married to Ruben van Dam.

In 1914, Zacharias van Moppes stayed already once in the Municpality of Bercham working as a diamond polisher. In 1922 the family lived in Antwerp and up from April 1930 at Ferdinand Coosemansstraat 141 in Berchem, where they have moved another time to Daenenstraat 36, also in Berchem.

An exerpt nr. 4, dated 13 February 1951 from the register of deceased of the Municipality of Berchem, shows that Zacharias van Moppes has died in Auschwitz on 15 September 1942. The deed was made out pursuant to a judgement of the District Court in Antwerp (Rechtbank van Eerste Aanleg) of 19 October 1950. From documents from Caserne Dossin at Mechelen is is clear that Zacharias van Moppes has been deported from Mechelen to Auschwitz on 12 September 1942 with Convoy 9 and on arrival there immediately was killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

His wife, Bella Stibbe, survived the Shoah and has died in 1957 in Den Haag.

Sources include the Dossiers of Foreigners of Antwerp no. 968#8730, 968#17368 and nr. 165113 for Zacharias van Moppes; the Belgian Jew Register and the Memorial of the Deportation of the Belgian Jews, page 25 and the transport list of 11 September 1942 of the 9th Convoy with Zacharias van Moppes.

 

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