Frits Ino de Vries

Frits Ino de Vries was born on 24 September 1939 in Amsterdam. He grows up in the Werkdorp. His father is an agricultural foreman. He arrived in March 1934 as one of the first pioneers together with the agricultural labourer A. van Kemmeren. On 13 February 1936, Rosa Winter, the mother of Frits Ino and Mia, arrived in the Werkdorp with a group of seven other pioneers from Cologne. Rosa meets Menni de Vries, they fall in love and get married on 24-12-1937. That is two months before their first child Mia de Vries is born. A year and a half later her brother Frits Ino de Vries is born.

When the Werkdorp is evacuated on 20 March 1941, the De Vries family is among the 60 people who stay to take care of the running business and to bring in the harvest. In August, the Werkdorp was finally closed down and the De Vries family left for Zwolle. Father Menni found work on the farm of the Slingerland family in Olst, but this ended in November 1941. After that, he worked at several places as a casual labourer. When he had no work, the family was supported by the Jewish Committee. He was still employed as a porter in the Jewish hospital in Zwolle.

On 6 April 1943, the occupier decreed that all Jews must have left the provinces of Overijssel and Gelderland before 10 April. The De Vries family was arrested on 9 April 1943 and imprisoned in camp Vught. From there Frits Ino, his mother Rosa and his sister Mia were transferred to camp Westerbork two months later. Father Menni followed a month later. After a stay of three months in Westerbork, they are transported to Auschwitz. Menni did compulsory labour for a year and was then murdered. Frits Ino, his mother Rosa and his sister Mia were killed immediately upon arrival on 3 September 1943.