Esther Ritmeester

Esther and Rosa Ritmeester were twin sisters. Both were born on 17 August  1918 in Amsterdam as daughters of Jechiël Ritmeester and Elisabeth Brandon. Both sisters still lived at home with their parents at Lepelstraat 2, 2nd floor, were not married and both worked as seamstresses/lingerie seamstresses. They had an older sister Rachel and three brothers, namely: Isaac, David and Philip. In 1920 ano…

In addition, a Jokos file (number 33092) on this family is at the Amsterdam Municipal Archive. Access is subject to authorization from the Stichting Joods Maatschappelijk Werk.

Deportation periods in 1943

Apart from the "Sobibor period" (2 March to 20 July 1943), two deportation periods can be distinguished in 1943, viz. the period from 11 January to 2 February 1943, in which 9 transports left directly for Auschwitz, viz. 8 from Westerbork and 1 from Apeldoorn (for the sake of brevity to be called "Spring transports 1943"), and the period from 24 August to 16 November 1…