Biography

About Eliazer Morpurgo, his wife Anna Mok and their family.

Anna Mok, daughter of Isaak Aron Mok and Jeannette Natkiel, married Eliazer Morpurgo on 17 January 1907 in Amsterdam. He was born in 1880 in Amsterdam as son of Abraham Morpurgo and Rachel Morpurgo. Of Anna’s seven siblings, only her brother Joseph died already in 1923 and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen. She herself, Roosje (1869), Hendrika (1872), Rebecca (1874), Elisabeth (1878), Joseph (1880), Aäron (1882) and Sara (1886) were murdered in the Shoah.

Also Eliazer Morpurgo was born into a large family. Six of his siblings were killed in the Holocaust too, namely Jacob (1876), Esther (1878), Sara (1882), Mozes (1884), Joseph (1887) en Rebecca Morpurgo (1889).

Anna's husband, Eliazer Morpurgo, ran a shop in draperies. After their marriage they lived at Oude Schans 57 and moved three more times before they came living at Oosterpark 10 1st floor on 29 May 1934. The Morpurgo-Mok family lived there until they were arested and taken to Westerbork in 1943.

The Morpurgo-Mok couple had four children, namely Jeannette, Rachel, Abraham and Rosa. Rachel married 17 July 1940 Levie Sarlui, a son of Hijman Sarlyui and Ester Kool. They had no children and were both killed in Sobibor on 9 July 1943. 

Their son Abraham married 19 May 1937 in Amsterdam Greta Dingsdag, a daughter of Gerrit Dingsdag and Naatje Kool. In 1939 they had a daughter, who survived the Holocaust. They themselves were deported to Auschwitz on 14 September 1943, where on arrival on 17 September Greta immediately has been killed in the gas chambers but Abraham, after months of hard labor lost his life there on 8 January 1944. 

Both their unmarried daughters Jeannette and Rosa were carried off to concentration camp Vught in the night of 8/9 April 1943, from where they were put on transport to Westerbork on 17 July. On 20 July they were both deported to Sobibor and on arrival there on 23 July 1943 immediately killed.

Eliazer Morpurgo and Anna Mok were registered in Westerbork on 3 April 1943 and stayed there in barrack 63. From notes written on his registration card of the Jewish Council, it can be concluded that Eliazer started the same day with attempts to prevent them from deportation: He would have a Callmeyer stamp and had put a request to Callmeyer, of which on 19 April again a copy was submitted with the date of submission by Mr. Goldstein, to which the answer came "that on the grounds mentioned in the exposition nothing could be achieved because the request was submitted on the basis of a Callmeyer stamp". 

Eliazer Morpurgo had sent one of his daughters in Vught, fl. 10, - by money order, which she did not receive. After she signed for receipt, she did not receive the money. "According to the camp department, there could be no question of repayment". Only the proof of deposit was returned to him.  

Eliazer and Anna have been working for the Jewish Council in food preparation in Westzaan, have paid a drinking jar and food plates from their own resources, but have not received any reimbursement from the Expo. "The case was too old and could not be processed anymore". 

In the end, all attempts failed, and Eliazer Morpurgo and his wife Anna Mok were deported to Auschwitz on 16 November 1943, where they were immediately killed on arrival there on 19 November 1943.

Sources among others: City Archive Amsterdam, archive cards of Anna Mok, Eliazer Morpurgo and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council,registration cards of Eliazer Morpurgo, Anna Morpurgo-Mok, Jeannette Morpurgo, Rosa Morpurgo, Rachel Sarlui-Morpurgo, Levie Sarlui and Abraham Morpurgo,(spouse of Greta Dingsdag).

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