Emil Alexander was born on 3 March 1870 in Lobsens in Poland, (Polish: Lobzenica) in the province of Posen. He was married to Hulda Stempel, of whom nothing else is known. At some point the Alexander family has left Poland as their daughter Erna was born in 1902 in Warburg in Sauerland (Westphalia) in Germany.
Later, Emil Alexander moved to Hannover, and his daughter lived in Peine, ± 40 km East from Hannover, where she married Albert Hertz from Sittard (province of Limburg in Holland) and where both their children were born. The Hertz family arrived already in 1935 in the Netherlands, at first to Hillegersberg and later to Rotterdam. Emil Alexander followed on 4 May 1939 where he found lodging with Jacob van Spier in the Molenstraat 20 in Rotterdam.
On the 4th of October 1942, women and children of Jewish labourers, who were in the Jewish labour camps were picked up and brought to Westerbork. And in the first week of October 1942, also the big roundups in Rotterdam started, whereby Jewish citizens of Rotterdam up from 60 years of age were transported to Camp Westerbork and from there deported to the extermination camps. (sources: archive of the4 Dutch Red Cross, transports to Westerbork and the Wikipedia website Loods 24).
Both housemates, Jacob van Spier and Emil Alexander were already between 3 and 5 October taken from “Loods 24” in Rotterdam and carried off to Westerbork. Jacob van Spier was deported then on 12 October to Auschwitz where he has been killed directly upon arrival on 15 October 1942.
However, Emil Alexander stayed till 2 November in Westerbork and only then deported to Auschwitz. On arrival there on 5 November 1942, he too was killed immediately in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources among others: the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration careds of Albert Hertz; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Emil Alexander and Jacob van Spier; the German memorial book of Persecution of Jews under National Socialist Tyranny in Germany, 1933-1945/Emil Alexander; certificate of death made out in Rotterdam dated 2-2-1951, nr. 544 for Emil Alexander and an addition of a visitor of the website.