Biography

The fate of Hartog Porcelijn.

Hartog Porcelijn was a son of Salomon Porcelijn and Rika Augurk. He was born on 2 Febuary 1911 in Amsterdam and he was unmarried. He lived at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 1c 3rd floor in Amsterdam and he was a ballet dancer by profession.

With his parents and sibs he lived shortly in Nijmegen in 1924 but per October of that year, they returned in Amsterdam but then lived at different addresses in the city. On 12 April 1938 he lived at Ruyschstraat 79 1st floor and per 25 April 1939 at Nieuwe Keizersgracht.

At some point in 1942, most likely in the summer, Hartog Porcelijn was arrested and transported to Camp Amersfoort, where he received the prisoners number 48303. Unknown is how long and why he had to stay there, but on 16 July 1942, Hartog and another 308 fellow victims were added to a transport of in total 895 deportees from Westerbork to Auschwitz, among them the 309 Jewish prisoners, who arrived that same day from Camp Amersfoort.

The transport must have been arrived in Auschwitz ±19 July 1942; upon arrival there, Hartgo Porcelijn was not immediately murdered in the gas chambers, but ended up in the camp. His name occurs at a so-called “Zugangsliste Juden”- a newly arrived Jewish prisoners list, who were registered in the camp. But it appeared from the so-called “Sterbebücher” – the death registers of Auschwitz – that Hartog Porcelijn already one month later, on 20 August 1942 has been murdered there. The story about the “Leichenhalle” shows how prisoners were killed. This is unkown for Hartog Porcelijn, but appart from that, the conditions in the camp were horrible.

After the war, when the above was not yet known, it was established by the Dutch authorities on the basis of survivors' testimonies and other information, that Hartog Porcelijn no longer could be alive after 30 September 1942. The Municipality of Amsterdam then was commissioned to draw up a death certificate in which it was established that Hartog Porcelijn officially had died on 30 September 1942 in Auschwitz.

Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Salomon Porcelijn, archive card of Hartog Porcelijn; website ITS Arolson/prisoners list from Auschwitz with Hartog Porcelijn; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Hartog Porcelijn; the Wikipedia listing of jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl; the website Museum and Memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau/prisoners and the death certificate for Hartog Porcelijn nr. 564 dated 18 August 1950, made out in Amsterdam from the A-register 46-folio 96 of the City Archive of Amsterdam.

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