Celina Sturkop, who was born on 14 April 1911 in Amsterdam, was a daughter of Alexander Sturkop and Hanna Lopes de Leao. She was a tiemaker by profession. In 1914, her brother Lodewijk was born. On 18 September 1929 she married in Amsterdam Joseph van Kreeveld, who was born on 20 April 1910 as a natural son of Hendrica van Kreveld. On 23 January 1930 Joseph and Celina had a daughter, named Hendrica, who eventually survived the war.
Joseph van Kreeveld lived with his brother Salomon, sister Lena and his mother in Antwerp and Amsterdam. When Joseph was 13 years old and still a scholar, he was sent again to Antwerp, where he came living in with family of Aron Engelander and Clara Lakmaker in the Statiestraat 15.
In 1927 Joseph returned to Amsterdam and when he reached the age of 18, he was admitted on 16 January 1928 as apprentice diamond polisher with the ANDB, the General Dutch Diamondworkers Union, where he learned the trade at the Bottenheim atelier.
Meantime, since December 1929, Joseph lived at Waterlooplein 91. There his uncle Isaac van Kreeveld resided with his second wife Kaatje Tokkie, but also his in-laws, the Sturkop family. Later, they relocated still several times in Amsterdam but in August 1931 they moved to Den Haag, where they found housing at Lekstraat 5a and 95a.
Two years later, on 24 August 1933 Joseph and his family returned to Amsterdam where they found room at Prinsengracht 673a. After some more relocations, Joseph van Kreeveld passed away on 7 April 1936, only 25 years old. He was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen.
After his death, his widow Celina Sturkop and daughter Hendrica lived until 1938 alternatively in Den Haag and Amsterdam, where they found housing at different addresses. In 1938, daughter Hendrica was accomodated at Govert Flinckstraat 337 2nd floor in Amsterdam. There her grandmother Hanna Lopes de Leao lived with her 2nd husband Salomon Frank. Celina’s last known address was Muzenstraat 2b in Den Haag. A note on her registration card of the Jewish Counil show that apparently she had gone into hiding too.
However, in August 1942 she has been arrested and carried off to Westerbork, where she arrived on 20 August and already the next day, 21 August 1942 was put on transport to Auschwitz with another 1007 deportees. Upon arrival there ±24 August 1942 she most likely was put to work there as a forced labourer.
The exact date of death of the widowed Celina van Kreeveld-Sturkop is not known, nor where she had to “work”. After the war, the Dutch Authorities have established, partly on testimonies of survivors and research, that Celina Sturkop no longer could be alive after 30 September 1942. The Municipality of Den Haag then was commissioned to draw up a death certificate for Celina Sturkop, in which was established that she had died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Hendrica van Kreeveld (1892), certificate of birth no.4427 of Joseph van Kreeveld; wedding certificated Amsterdam Joseph van Kreeveld x Celina Sturkop; family registration cards of Joseph van Kreeveld and Celina Sturkop; the Municipal Archive of Den Haag, family registration cards of Joseph van Kreeveld and Hendrica van Kreeveld; The Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp no 150493 image 532-545 re Joseph and Hendrica van Kreeveld; ANDB apprentice card of Joseph van Kreeveld; certificate of death no.2007 dated 7 April 1936 made out in Amsterdam for Joseph van Kreeveld; Website Stenenarchief.nl/grave Joseph van Kreeveld; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Celina van Kreeveld-Sturkop and the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.