Biography

About Abraham Witteboon, his 2nd wife Elisabeth Sluijs and daughters Clara and Sara.

Widower from Vogeltje van West on 18 August 1910.

Abraham Witteboon was a son of Simon Witteboon and Schoontje Uijekruijer. He married Vogeltje van West in Amsterdam on 30 October 1901, who was born on 26 March 1880 as a daughter of Salomon van West and Betje Lelie. The couple had three children: viz. Susanna on 12 March 1902, Salomon on 7 November 1903 and Clara on 28 September 1906.

Their children Susanna and Salomon were mixed married and due to that survived the war. Only the youngest, Clara, married in 1935 the Jewish Isaac Vischjager, a son of Jacob Vischjager and Vrouwtje Lelie. They had two sons, Leo in 1938 and Theo in 1942, but as a family, they were murdered in Sobibor on 4 June 1943.

After the wedding of Abraham Witteboon and Vogeltje van West was concluded in 1901, they lived at Kerkstraat 347 in Amsterdam, followed by some seven relocations, when Vogeltje van West passed away on 18 August 1910, only 30 years old. She lived with her husband and children at Blasiusstraat 19 1st floor then.

Abraham remarried on 6 July 1911 in Zaandam Elisabeth Sluijs, a daughter of Ezechiël Sluijs and Saartje van Wezel; she was born in Amsterdam on 31 July 1875. After they were wed, they moved into a house at Graaf Florisstraat 21 2nd floor in Amsterdam. There, their daughter Sara was born on 7 February 1913.

At the end of July 1942 Sara Witteboon married Arnold de Levita, who was born on 27 April 1918 as a son of Louis de Levita and Aaltje van Kollem. Also Sara was murdered in Sobibor on 4 June 1943 and her spouse Arnold de Levita lost his life on 31 March 1943 somewhere in Central Europe.

In August 1931, the Abraham Witteboon family moved to Berkelstraat 9 2nd floor in the River District of Amsterdam and in December 1937 to Meerhuizenstraat 8 2nd floor, after which only Abraham moved into a retirement home, Van Zweden retirement home at Plantage Parklaan 6 upper house on 10 September 1942.

In this retirement home, many Jewish men stayed there during the war, for whom this home in most cases was their last address, for others a transit home to among others the Central Israelitic Psychatric Hospital “Het Apeldoornsche Bosch”. His wife Elisabeth Sluijs remained living at Meerhuizenstraat, after which she moved on 18 March 1943 – most likely forced – to the Transvaal District of Amsterdam-East to live in with her daughter Sara, who lived at Hofmeyrstraat 35 2nd floor since 15 February 1943.

On 25 May 1943, 7000 Jews had to report to the Polderweg in Amsterdam-East, where the Muiderpoort train station was located nearby. However, only 500 people gathered on the Polderweg, waiting long hours for the train that would carry them off to Westerbork.

Also Elisabeth Sluijs belonged to these group of 500 Jews, who arrived that 25th of May in Westerbork. Elisabeth was housed in barrack 58 and on 1 June deported to Sobibor. Upon  arrival there on 4 June 1943, she was immediately murdered in the gas chambers there.

At the other hand, Abraham Witteboon has been carrief off already to Westerbork on 19 January 1943 and housed in barrack 84, the so-called “old peoples barrack”. On 23 January a so-called sick-transport left with 516 victims from the hospital barrack 83 and old peoples barrack 84 to Auschwitz, where Abraham Witteboon upon arrival there was murdered immediately in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau on 26 January 1943 .

Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Abraham Witteboon, archive cards of Abraham Witteboon and Elisabeth Sluijs; death certificate 4983 dated 19 Aug 1910 from book 9-fol.16 for Vogeltje van West; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Abraham Witteboon and Elisabeth Witteboon-Sluijs; website Joods Amsterdam/Plantage Parklaan 6 Amsterdam; website Oorlogsbronen (War Sources)/Poldeweg/25 May 1943; Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/transport 23 January 1943 and an addition of a visitor of the website.

 

All rights reserved