Biography

About Naatje Kool, divorced spouse from Samuel Dresden.

Naatje Kool was the first wife of Samuel Dresden. She was born on 14 January 1905 in Amsterdam as a daughter of Meijer Kool and Kaatje Nol. Her husband, to whom she got married in Amsterdam on 7 July 1927, was born on 2 September 1903 as son of Joseph Dresden and Grietje Schrijver. The marriage however did not last and on 3 March 1938 Naatje Kool was officially divorced from Samuel Dresden. It appeared, as far as has been researched, that there was no offspring from this marriage.

The wedding between Naatje Kool and Samuel Dresden took place during the time that Samuel lived in Deurne in Belgium, where he worked ad brilliant cutter. It was not clear from available documents whether Naatje has lived in Belgium too after her marriage, or that she remained in Amsterdam and that Samuel regularly came to her in Amsterdam. But a few years later, in February 1934, Samuel Dresden returned to Amsterdam where he at first lived at different addresses in the city, but per 13 July 1935, he moved into a house at Kromme Mijdrechtstraat 59 1st floor.

After Naatje’s divorce in 1938, she lived with her father Meijer Kool at Vrolikstraat 229 ground floor, from where she had been taken to Westerbork on 10 July 1943. Back in the days, Naatje Kool worked as office clerk and possessed het diploa commercial correspondence, but since 17 July 1942 the worked as house keeper, by which she got a jobe on 28 September 1942 at the Jewish Council at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 58 and received a “Sperre because of function”. For the time being she was exempted from deportation and had a Jewish Council I.D. with no. B800.

However, on 10 July 1943 she was carried off to Westerbork and ended up in barrack 58. On 13 July Naatje Kool was deported to Sobibor and upon arrival there on 16 July 1943, she was immediately murdered in the gas chambers there.

Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Naatje Kool and Samuel Dresden, the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Naatje Kool and her certificate of death no 570 dated 9 June 1950 from the A-register 36, folio 96 verso.

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