Barend Gompers was a son of Levie Barend Gompers and Schoontje Jacob Boas, a family with nine children. Mietje, Sara, Naatje Elias, Philip and Barend himself, were killed during the Shoah. Two children, Joseph and Marcus have died already before the was and one son, Michel, survived the Holocaust.
Barend married Aaltje Blitz on 5 September 1893 in Zaandam. She was born in Amsterdam on 22 July 1873 as a daughter of Godschalk Levie Blitz and Naatje Blitz. The couple Gompers-Blitz had no offspring.
Barend and Aaltje have resided at many different addresses in Amsterdam. After their wedding, they lived at Sint Antoniebreestraat 23, one year later at Waterlooplein; in 1895 at Raamgracht 61 and between 1898 and 1901 they stayed in Antwerp. After their return in Amsterdam in 1901, they found housing at Plantage Muidergracht 27, moved in 1916 to Vrolikstraat 75 and in 1919 to Ruyschstraat 129. In 1923 Barend and Aaltje yet moved the penultimate time: to Transvaalstraat 36 in Amsterdam-East and the last time in 1930 to house no. 52 in the same street. There Barend’s wife Aaltje Blitz passed away on 30 May 1930 and she was interred in the Jewish Cemetetery at Muiderberg.
Barend Gompers, now widowed, moved to Corellistraat 5 2nd floor in Amsterdam-South in 1940, where his nephew Joseph Gompers lived, a son of Barend’s bother Philip Gompers who was married to Rebecca de Haan.
After 1941, Barend Gompers was employed by the Jewish Council of Amsterdam and worked at the General Service Department of the Council at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 58. He may have held there an office position and due to that, he was “exempted from deportation because of function” until further notice and had a “Sperre” number 23/97018. Previously to that he had been working as a diamond polischer, as an office clerk and messenger.
On 20 June 1943, Barend Gompers was arrested during the large-scale and secretly prepared round-up, where then ±5500 Jews were caught and carried off to Westerbork. Barend ended up in barrack 17 and nine days later, on 29 June he was put on transport to Sobibor. On arrival there on2 July 1943 Barend Gompers was immediately killed in the gas chambers there.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Barend Gompers and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Barend Gompers; Peoples Registry and Closed family registration cards from Amsterdam for Aaltje Blitz; the Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, nr. 93386; website hetstenenarchief.nl/grave Aaltje Blitz and an addition of a visitor of the website.
The existing text of the biography was supplemented on 20 March 2020 by the Editors of the Jewish Monument.