Gerrit Pront, born in Amsterdam on 27 June 1902 of Zacharias Pront and Selly Lakmaker, was a diamond sawyer by trade. On 18 July 1929 he married Klara Elsas in Amsterdam, a daughter of Levie Elsas and Rachel Pront. Klara was born on 16 September 1907 in Amsterdam and worked as a seamstress. Gerrit and Klara together had one daughter, Elly, who was born on 19 April 1934 in Amsterdam.
Besides sawyer and cutter of diamonds, he was also working for a clothing company. He and his wife Klara lived at Tugelaweg 83 2nd floor in Amsterdam-East. Previously, both have lived with parents and siblings in the Blasiusstraat: Gerrit at no. 107 1st floor and Klara since 1927 at no. 88 1st floor.
In the second half of 1942 or early 1943, the Pront family decided to go into hiding, which obviously was not quite successful, because ór by treason ór by other causes, Gerrit and Klara were arrested early March 1943 and carried off to concentration camp Vught, where they arrived on 10 March 1943. Their daughter Elly most likely was hidden at another address and by hiding she eventually has survived the Holocaust.
Klara was a seamstress in Vught at the Bilsen Command; however she was deported in a direct transport from Vught via Westerbork to Auschwitz with another 1149 deportees on 15 November 1943, and upon arrival there on ±18 November 1943, she passed the selection and, 36-year of age, she was put to work as a forced labourer there. Not known is where, in which command , what kind of “work” she had to do, nor her exact date of death.
Therefore, the Dutch Authorities after the war have established, also based on testimonials of survivors, research and other informations, that Klara Elsas no longer could be alive after 31 January 1944. The Ministry of Justice then commissioned the Municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate for Klara Pront-Elsas, in which was established that she has died in the vicinity of Auschwitz on 31 January 1944.
Gerrit Pront was a sawyer and cutter of diamonds but not known is what he had to do for work in concentration camp Vught. On 21 March 1944 Gerrit was sent from Vught to Westerbork, from where he was deported to Auschwitz on 23 March 1944 in a transport of nearly 600 deportees, which has arrived there ±26 March 1944.
After the war, not much was known regarding the fate of the many deported victims. Also about Gerrit Pront nearly nothing was known about his fate and it could be possible that he was one of the victims of the so-called “death marches”, the evacuation transports from the Auschwitz Complex in the end-period.
Therefore, after the war, the Dutch Authorities concluded, also based on testimonials of survivors and research, that Gerrit Pront no longer could be alive after 21 January 1945 and the Ministry of Justice then commissioned the Municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate for Gerrit Pront, in which it is established that he has died in Mid-Europe on 21 January 1945.
However, what was not known after the war, but what is available today, mostly accessible through internet too, are i.e. the (incomplete) death registers from Auschwitz. These show that Gerrit Pront, born on 27 June 1902 in Amsterdam, with prisoner number 175482 he received on arrival in Auschwitz, was put to work as a forced labourer in Auschwitz III, also known as Monowitz. The death registers of Auschwitz III show, that Gerrit Pront died there in the prisoners hospital on 11 June 1944, after ± 11 weeks of forced labor.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Gerrit Pront and Levie Elsas, archive cards of Gerrit Pront and Klara Elsas; website ITS Arolosn, camp cards Vught of Gerrit Pront and Klara Pront-Elsas; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Gerrit Pront, Klara Pront-Elsas and Elly Pront; the Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl; the official death certificates made out in Amsterdam for Gerrit Pront, no. 55 dated 1 May 1952 from the A-register 55-folio 11 and for Klara Elas, nr. 235, dated 24 August 1951 from the A-register 84-folia 41 and the website Memorial & Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau/Auschwitz Prisoners.