President Brandstraat 112

Maurits Beugeltas (1908) is seven when his mother dies and while his nine-year-old sister is sent to an orphanage because it is not safe for girls without parental supervision in the neighborhood, he has to find his own way in the changed home situation. Everyone is busy earning an income. His older brothers are often on the street and earn some money as errand boys, but under the watchful eye of his sister Schoontje, Maurits continues his primary school. He becomes a bread baker and when the baking is over he delivers the orders himself.

In 1927, following his eldest brother Isaäc, he decides to seek adventure and signs a five-year contract with the KNIL. Maurits is trained as a fusilier in the Prins Hendrik barracks in Nijmegen. On November 29, 1927, he is stationed in Bandung and a year later transfer to Batavia. His inspection shows that he is 1m65 tall and that he has a tattoo on his right hand and arm. An announcement for a match in the local newspaper of Batavia highlights the sporty side of Maurits: he boxing, a popular sport among the youth in the Jewish corner.

When he returned home in 1932, he moved in with the family in the Rapenburgerstraat and went back to work as a baker. In 1935 he meets Anna (Annie) Sacksioni (1914 – 2001), a seamstress by trade, and they get married a year later. Maurits, Anna and her three-year-old son Joseph (Jopie) move to the Transvaalbuurt in June 1936. Maurits has meanwhile become a groundworker employed by the municipality.

In the summer of 1942, the family was among the first groups of people to be called up for 'job expansion in the east'. Maurits and Anna must not have been reassured about a happy ending: Anna is pregnant and so they are looking for a hiding place. A family in Westzaan is prepared for Jopie: the childless couple Ruska, who also took in a Jewish girl. Anna and Maurits find their own address in Volendam. A daughter is born there in October 1942, who is given a place in an orphanage because a baby in hiding posed far too great a risk.

In May 1944, things go wrong: the family is betrayed and has to flee. Maurits picks up Jopie from Westzaan, no doubt with the intention of joining Anna later, but it never happens again. Father and son are arrested by the Monnickendam Sicherheitsdienst and delivered to Amsterdam, from where the Westerbork penal barracks follow after five days.

On May 19, 1944, Maurits and Jopie had to be transported to Auschwitz as a criminal case. On arrival on May 22, Jopie is murdered. Maurits is selected for forced labor and, according to the Red Cross, dies due to hardship somewhere in Central Europe on or around 30 September. On August 11, 1945, Anna and her daughter temporarily return from Brunssum to the house at President Brandstraat no. 26-III. Immigration to South Africa and the US will follow later.
(Source: Achterdesteen.nl)

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