Biography

About Rachel Morpurgo and her husband Levie Sarlui.

Rachel Morpurgo, daughter of Eliazer Morpurgo and Anna Mok, married 17 July 1940 Levie Sarlui in Amsterdam, a son of Hijman Sarlui and Esther Kool. Levie lived with his mother, who was already widowed in 1909, before his wedding in Anjelierstraat 22 ground floor in Amsterdam. Rachel Morpurgo then lived still at Oosterpark 10 1st floor, but after she was married to Levie, they lived together at Ruyschstraat 56 1st floor in Amsterdam. Also Levie’s mother Esther Kook came living in with the newly wed couple at the new address. Rachel and Levie had no children.

Levie’s mother was carried off from her address Ruyschstraat 56 1st floor to Westerbork on 3 April 1943, stayed in barrack 63 till she was deported to Sobibor on 11 Mey. There on arrival on 14 May 1943 she has been immediately killed.

Levie Sarlui was a dealer of haberdasheries and draperies and worked also as an office clerk. At the time of the compulsory registration of the Jews in the Netherlands, Levie got a job at the Jewish Council: he became an employee in the General Service and assistant health care provider. Therefore Levie Sarlui was "gesperrt bis auf weiteres" (exempted from deportation till further notice) and his wife, who in the normal life was clothing seamstress and chief saleswoman in a drapery shop, also had a "sperre due to function “wehrmacht". 

This has led to it that Rachel Morpurgo and her husband Levie Sarlui were only being registered in Westerbork on 29 June 1943, where they stayed in barrack 57. However, it then took less than seven days when they were both deported on 6 July to Sobibor where they on arrival on 9 July 1943 immediately were killed.

Sources: City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Eliazer Morpurgo, Rachel Morpurgo and Levie Sarlui and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Levie Sarlui and Rachel Sarlui-Morpurgo.

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