Roosje Velleman, a daughter of Aron Velleman and Jetje de Jong, was the 2nd wife of Mozes Gompers, who was born in Nijmegen on 2 May 1873 as son of Jonas Gompers and Marianne de Goeie.
Mozes Gompers married 24 May 1894 in Antwerpen Mietje Terveen, a daughter of Abraham Terveen and Rebecca Querido. With his wife he lived at Terliststraat 37 in the Diamond District in Antwerp and worked as a colporteur/hawker. On 9 April 1895 their son Abraham was born there. About eight months later, on 20 December 1895 Mietje Terveen passed away in Antwerp. Their little son Abraham Gompers died fourteen months after his birth on 4 July 1896.
Mozes married the 2nd time 11 March 1903 in Antwerp Roosje Velleman from Rotterdam, born there 30 October 1872. After their wedding Mozes and Roosje lived at Van Spangenstraat 4 and later at nr. 15 in Antwerp. On 9 March 1904 they had a daughter, Marianna. However, Mozes Gompers passed away there at the age of 46 years, on 16 January 1920.
Roosje Gompers-Velleman then lived as a widow with her daughter Marianna at Van Spangenstraat 15. Two years later, in 1922, Marianna was married to Raphaël Casoetto and lived no more “at home”. And since 1940, Roosje lived at Van Schoonhovenstraat 48 in Antwerp. When it became known after the war, that Roosje Gompers-Velleman had died in Auschwitz, the end of April 1943, she was officially unsubscribed from the Peoples Registry of Antpwer per 16 February 1950.
On 19 April 1943, Roosje Gompers-Velleman was put on transport with Convoy XX from Mechelen to Auschwitz, where she arrived 22 April 1943. Presumably she belonged to the group of 870 persons, who were immediately sent to the gas chambers to be killed. Furthermore, the following is also known about the 20th convoy:
For the first time the SS police used cattle wagons with locked windows for this transport to avoid escapes, which earlier had been occurred regularly.
Despite these precautionary measures there still were escapes: 231 deportees tried to escape before the border. Most of them succeed in this, although the escort fired gunshots. There were already 23 corpses along the Belgian route. Moreover, three other refugees were fatally injured. The escaped jumped from the moving train. They organized their escape themselves, with the help of tools, which they had taken from the transit camp, sometimes, with the complicity of “employees” who work among others for the SS police administration during wintertime.
Beside of that, three audacious Belgians have managed to stop the convoy just before Leuven, and have managed to open one wagon in the middle of the long convoy, so again 17 persons could escape deportation.
Of the original 1631 persons of Convoy XX, eventually 1400 arrived 22 April 1943 in Auschwitz. Of them, 870 persons were on arrival immediately sent to the gas chambers and gassed. The other 521 persons were registered in the camp, of whom 245 women. Of those, many had to undergo medical experiments in block 10 in Auschwitz I. Yet 150 persons of this transport were still alive at the time of liberation.
Sources: The Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, nr. 79006, images 218-240 and the Memorial of the Deportation of the Belgian Jews, pages 30, 31 and 547.