Maurits "Maup" Caransa (5 January 1916 – 6 August 2009) was a Dutch businessman who became one of the most important real-estate developers in post-World War II Amsterdam.

[3] Before the February strike in response to Nazi pogroms, almost all of Caransa's family, including his brother Joel who lived next door to him, had already been arrested.

[2] Because he married a Catholic woman in 1941 and did not appear stereotypically Jewish to the Nazis and their allies[5][6][7] (he had blond, almost red hair and light-blue eyes[2]), he was "destarred" after having agreed to sterilisation.

[9] In 1958, de Volkskrant described Caransa's stock in Amsterdam's Entrepot dock, listing hundreds of trucks, bulldozers, and other vehicles (to be shipped to Thailand, Singapore, and the Middle East) and five German E-boats (for France and Spain).

[10] Caransa invested his profits in real estate,[9] and when the dump trade fell flat he continued as a real-estate developer,[2] becoming a millionaire.

During Van Praag's chairmanship, however, Ajax grew and developed a reputation for success and wealth, for which Caransa's money, which supported the team and its players, was partly responsible.

[25] In 1977, he was kidnapped on leaving the Continental Club after his customary weekly game of bridge[26][27] and held for five days; he was released after a reported payment of ten million guilders in ransom.

He died in Vinkeveen on 6 August 2009,[9] and was buried in the country's oldest Jewish cemetery, Beth Haim in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel.