Jacob Dingsdag was one of the twelve children of Levie Dingsdag and Mietje Theeboom. He was born in Amsterdam on 27 June 1908 and started working as a butcher’s aid. Later he earned his living as a trader and a (clothing)-presser. On 16 November 1938 he married Henriette Suiskind in Amsterdam, who was born in Schüttorf Germany on 8 January 1912 as a daughter of Samson Suiskind and Rosa Helena Goedhart. The couple had no children.
After her birth, Henriette Suiskind lived in Enschede among others. Before she came to live in Amsterdam in 1934, she lived at Stad Delden. She had four more siblings, namely Sophie, the eldest, who survived the Holocaust with her husband Abraham Drukker and their two children. Her sister Evaline and brothers Samuel and Alfred however were murdered with their families during the Shoah.
Jacob lived at home with his parents which was Blasiusstraat 120 since the end of March 1934. There at the 1st and 2nd floor more members of the Dingsdag family resided. In 1937 Jacob moved in with his brother Mozes, who lived with his family at Krugerplein 15 3rd floor, but where at that time also his brothers Joseph and Jonas lived at the 1st floor.
After the wedding on 16 November 1938, Jacob and his wife Henriette left for Noorderhagen 9 and Ledeboerstraat 58 in Enschede. Henriette’s mother Rosa Helena Suiskind-Goedhart, who was widowed from Samson Suiskind already in 1936, lived there. Also Jonas, then still unmarried, lived in there for some months too.
Jacob and Henriette left Enschede again for Amsterdam at 28 October 1939 where they found living space at Tweede Oosterparkstraat 1 1st floor. Meantime Jacob was employed as (clothing)-presser. Jacob’s brother Jonas had left Enschede for Amsterdam already two months earlier.
It is very likely that Jacob and Henriette followed the call for the so-called Arbeitseinsatz in July 1942. In the night of 16 to 18 July they were transferred to Westerbork and on 21 July 1942 they were put on transport to Auschwitz. On arrival there ± 24 July, they were both put to work as forced labourers, but it is not known where and what "work" they had to do there.
They had to “work” there under a heavy regime and inhumane conditions. It is not known when Jacob Dingsdag and Henriette Suiskind have lost their lives there. After the war, the Dutch authorities determined, partly on the basis of survivors' testimonies and research, that both no longer could be alive after 30 September 1942. The Municipality of Amsterdam was requested to draw up a death certificate for them, in which it was established that Jacob Dingsdag and his wife Henriette Suiskind died on 30 September 1942 in Auschwitz.
However, since the (incomplete) "Sterbebücher", the death registers of Auschwitz have been digitally searchable, it has become apparent that Jacob Dingsdag was already murdered there on 7 September 1942. No exact date of death is known for Henriette. However, the website of the Jewish Monument only mentions the official Dutch dates of death, as they were also published in the Dutch Government Gazette at the time.
Sources include the City Archive of Amstrdam, family registration card of Jacob Dingsdag, archive cards of Jacob Dingsdag and Henriette Suiskind; Amsterdam residence cards of Krugerplein 15 and Tweede Oosterparkstraat 1; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Jacob Dingsdag and Henriette Dingsdag-Suiskind; certificates of death, made out in Amsterdam, nr. 490 dated 20 Juli 1950 from the A-register 42-folio 84 for Jacob Dingsdag and nr. 51 datedd 4 August 1950 from the A-register 45-folio 10 for Henriette Suiskind.