Willem Kuit and Sophia Parijs

Willem Kuit and Sophia Parijs were both born in Amsterdam: Willem on February 6, 1889 and Sophia on July 9, 1890. In April 1922 Willem arrived in Belgium. He went to live in Antwerp at Lentestraat 14. After two months he returned to Amsterdam where he moved in with his parents at Ruyschstraat 51. As a diamond worker he lived alternately in Amsterdam and Antwerp. On October 25, 1923 Willem married Sophia Parijs in Amsterdam. In the same year the couple moved to Belgium. Their last known address is Van Schoonhovenstraat 82 in Antwerp.

In May 1940 Nazi Germany invaded Belgium. Willem and Sophia obeyed the anti-Jewish laws of the occupation authorities. In December 1940, they registered in the municipal Register of Jews of Antwerp, and in March 1942 they became members of the Jewish Association. At the time of the third raid in Antwerp, Willem was arrested outside the raid area and taken to the Dossin Barracks. He was put under number 960 on transport IX that departed from Mechelen to Auschwitz-Birkenau on September 12, 1942. Sophia was also arrested during the next major raid in Antwerp. She was put under number 1647 on transport XI that departed from Mechelen to Auschwitz-Birkenau on September 26, 1942. The couple did not survive the war. Willem had two other brothers, Philip and Meijer and one sister Alida who were all deported from the Netherlands to Auschwitz. They were all murdered.

Publication info:

ADRIAENS Ward, STEINBERG Maxime (et al.), Mecheln-Auschwitz, 1942-1944. The destruction of Jews and gypsies from Belgium, 4 volumes (volume 1), Brussels, 2009.