Jenetta Baruch was the sister of Abraham Baruch, the youngest of three children and born on 5 October 1900 in Nieuweschans as daughter of Izaak Baruch and Annechien Goldsmid. She never has known her little brother Heiman; he died already in 1897, only one month old.
Jenetta married in Nieuweschans on 19 August 1920 Sallie Knorringa, a cattle trader, born 4 February 1888 in Uithuizen as son of Mozes Knorringa and Helena Bendiks. They lived at Blekerstraat 24a in Groningen and had there two children, namely Anna Froukje in 1922 and Martijn in 1927. The latter survived the Holocaust; his sister and parents were killed during the Shoah.
The complete Sallie Knorringa family was arrested during the large-scale round-ups of early October 1942 and taken to Westerbork, where they arrived somewhere between 3 and 5 October 1942. After ± 3 weeks, they were all put on transport to Auschwitz on 23 October.
This transport contained “only” 988 deportees, of whom during a stop in Kozel, ± 80 km west from Auschwitz, 170 men were forced to leave the train.They were deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labor camps and satellite camps of Auschwitz. Those, who remained in the train were transported onwards to Auschwitz, to be killed there. Thus also Sallie’s wife and daughter.
Sallie Knorringa was already 54 years old then, and arrived in Auschwitz on 26 October 1942 with his wife Jenetta Knorringa-Baruch and daughter Anna Froukje Knorringa. On arrival there, Jenetta and Anna Froukje were immediately murdered. The exact fate of Sallie could not be reconstructed. It is clear that he arrived with wife and daughter in Auschwitz but not sent to the gas chambers immediately. Considering his age, he would not have been with the group that had to leave the train in Kozel, but apparently Sally Knorring was still deployed as labourer somewhere. But it is unclear where. His exact date of death is also unknown. Therefore, on orders of the Dutch Ministery of Justice, the municipality of Groningen had to draw up a certificate of death for Sallie Knorringa, in which is established that he has lost his life on 30 April 1944 in Mid-Europe.
Sources among others: website allegroningers.nl; Arolson Archives/Knorringa; Arolson Archives/Martijn (Martin) Knorringa; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Sallie Knorringa, Jenetta Knorringa-Baruch, Anna Froukje Knorringa and Martijn Knorringa and the certificate of death nr. A151 dated 22 February 1952 for Sallie Knorringa, drawn up by the Groningen Municipality