Barend Chapon was a son of Juda Chapon and Jeanette Voorzanger. He married Mietje Zilverberg in 1908. He was a journalist and an art historian. After completing the higher secondary school, he worked briefly for a relative in Germany. In 1910 he became a deputy manager at the firm L.B. Schaap, a stockbroker in Amsterdam. In 1926 he became an independent agent. Barend Chapon was a member of the social-democratic labour party (SDAP) and ran for the Heemstede town council in 1923. Serving as town council member for the SDAP was an interesting contrast to his work as a stockbroker at the Amsterdam stock exchange. His co-workers were said to have surrounded him and sung the International at the stock exchange on 1 May. As a member of the city council, Barend Chapon supported the social housing development at Tuinwijk-Zuid, a Haarlem residential housing project. He lived in this neighbourhood on the Spaarnelaan.
Barend Chapon was very involved in the Jewish community of Haarlem. Though raised in an Orthodox household, he aimed to modernize Jewish community life. Chapon chaired the Dutch-Jewish community of Haarlem, the Dutch-Jewish Joles Hospital and the North Holland Synagogue District. In the spring of 1941 he became a member of the local Jewish Council.
On 30 January 1943 an Oberwachtmeister of the Nazi medical service was killed. In retaliation one hundred hostages were taken in and around Haarlem and brought to Vught concentration camp. Ten were executed in Bloemendaal. Barend Chapon was among them.
Jewish Historical Museum, Documents collection, inv.nr 1001 and 5631
Joods Journaal, nummer 18, winter 2002, 150
Nieuw Israëlietisch Weekblad, 14 december 2001, 15
W. de Wagt en B. Chapon, Jood en Europeaan (Zutphen 2001)
R. Fuks-Mansfeld (red.), Joden in Nederland in de twintigste eeuw. Een biografisch woordenboek (Utrecht 2007) 41.
Biography