Gerrit Schenkkan was the youngest son of Levie Schenkkan and Marianne Peper. He was a tailor by profession. On 24 October 1923 he married in Amsterdam the German Marian Pollinger from Nuremberg, from whom he was divorced five years later on 23 March 1928. Gerrit and Maria had no children together.
On 11 April 1928 Gerrit married again to Rachel Abrahams, a daughter of Maurits Abrahams and Clara Frankfoorder. On 18 May 1928 their first born child arrived already: Mary and on 22 February 1933 the second child followed: their son Levie.
After their wedding in 1928, Gerrit and Rachel lived in the Derde Oosterparkstraat 29. After another ten removals, the family ended up in the Kribbestraat 4 in Amsterdam-South. After having moved again in 1939 to Vechtstraat 162 3rd floor, they arrived at their last known address in Amsterdam: Transvaalstraat 93 ground floor, where they have moved in 25 April 1940.
Gerrit Schenkkan was exempted from deportation (“gesperrt”) because of his fuction at the messenger service from the Jewish Council at the Nieuwe Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. Therefore, also his family was exempted from deportation until further notice. For reasons that could not be traced, Gerrit and Rachel were arrested in September 1943 and taken to Westerbork on 7 September with their two children as well, with Gerrit and presumably also his wife Rachel being imprisoned in the penal barrack 67. Daughter Mary ended up in the hospital barrack 82 but where Levie had to stay is unknown.
On 25 January 1944 the family has been put on transport to Auschwitz; Gerrit and Rachel as penal cases on a penal transport and the children had to join them in the same transport which was called “normal transport”. On arrival in Auschwitz on 28 January 194, Gerrit, Rachel, Levie and Mary were immediately killed.
Sources among others: City Archive of Amsgterdam. Family registration card of Gerrit Schenkkan, archive cards of Gerrit Schenkkan, Rachel Abrahams, Levie Schenkkan and Mary Schenkkan and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Gerrit Schenkkan, Rachel Abrahams, Levie Schenkkan and Mary Schenkkan.