Tertaas-Huijsman family. Collection

Hartog Tertaas was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 5 July 1892 as the son of Mozes alias Maurice Tertaas and Rebecca Leeda. Hartog became a diamond cutter. On 15 May 1919, in Amsterdam, he married Clara Huijsman or Huysman who had been born on 10 February 1892 in the Dutch capital as the daughter of Machiel Huijsman and Jacomine Frankfort. As a young men Hartog had moved to Belgium, where he had lived at Vandenpeereboomstraat 32 in Borgerhout, right across from Clara’s family who had lived at number 29. During the First World War both the Tertaas family and the Huijsman family returned to the Netherlands where Hartog and Clara married. At the beginning of September 1919, newlyweds Hartog and Clara immigrated to Belgium and found living quarters at Sterlingerstraat 10 in Borgerhout. The following years they moved back and forth between Belgium and the Netherlands, as Hartog worked in the diamond industry in both Antwerp and Amsterdam. On 15 June 1920 a daughter named Rebecca was born in Borgerhout. Hartog and Clara’s second child, a son named Machiel, was born on 15 March 1923, also in Borgerhout, but sadly he passed away when he was 17 months old, in August 1924. Youngest daughter Jacomina was born in Deurne on 8 March 1926. When Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940 the Tertaas-Huijsman family rented a residence at Te Couwelaerlei 31 in Deurne. Hartog continued to work as a diamond cutter, while Clara took care of the household. Eldest daughter Rebecca also worked in the diamond industry, while youngest daughter Jacomina still went to school. The Tertaas-Huijsman family obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees. They registered in the municipal Jewish register at the end of November 1940, they had their ID cards stamped with the red mark “Jood-Juif” in the Summer of 1941, they became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in April 1942 and they wore the yellow star of David as of June 1942. Daughter Rebecca Tertaas was exempted from most of these measures as she had married the non-Jewish Belgian François Tertaas (born on 13 February 1921 in Antwerp) on 8 November 1941. She and François settled at Emiel Lemineurstraat 73 in Deurne later that month, and moved to De Gryspeerstraat 116 in Deurne on 8 June 1942. Their son Jozef Verachtert was born there on 2 September 1942. Jozef would never meet his maternal grandparents or aunt. In August 1942 Clara and Jacomina received an Arbeitseinsatzbefehl, a convocation for forced labour. They presented themselves at the Dossin barracks on 27 August 1942 and were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport VI on 29 August 1942. The date and exact location of Clara’s death remain unknown. Jacomina was murdered in Auschwitz on 16 September 1942. A third work order was addressed to Hartog Tertaas, but he was no longer in Belgium when it was delivered at the Tertaas family home. On 13 June 1942 Hartog had been deported from Antwerp to Northern France as a forced labourer for Organisation Todt. He was held at the labour camps Dannes and Condette, while working on the construction of the Atlantic Wall. On 31 October 1942 Hartog and most of the other Jewish workers were deported via transport XVI from France to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hartog too was murdered. Rebecca Tertaas survived the war, together with her son Jozef. Her husband François Verachtert was killed when he went to the movies on 16 December 1944. A V2 bomb hit the Cinema Rex movie theatre that he was visiting. François was one of the 567 casualties that day. Rebecca passed away on 20 October 2000. Her son Jozef built a family of his own and passed away on 25 August 2022.

On 5 January 2023, Saskia Verachtert, great-granddaughter of Hartog Tertaas and Clara Huijsman, kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitize her family photo album. Contact between Saskia Verachtert and Kazerne Dossin was established via Marc Weyns, responsible for placing stolpersteine [stumbling stones] in Deurne, Antwerp, where the Tertaas-Huijsman family resided before and during the war.

Saskia Verachtert, 2023