 Survivors have indicated that he was killed shortly after completing his last painting commission, in September 1943.Jules Schelvis notes, that Frenzel's assertion that Van Dam was killed in the revolt may have been self-serving.Schelvis concluded this based on statements by Alexander Pechersky, who was emphatic in his declarations never to have met Van Dam because the painter had already been killed prior to his own arrival in Sobibor, on September 23, 1943.