Rachel Stokvisch, a daughter of Abraham Stokvisch and Sara Waas, was born on 28 July 1895 in Amserdam. In later years, she was employed as a diamond cutter. On 29 December 1915 she married in Amsterdam David Beesemer, a natural son of Rachel Beesemer, also born in Amsterdam on 24 May 1894. The Beesemer-Stokvisch couple had six children and David supported his family as a dealer in leather-waste.
Of the six children, only the firstborn Sara survived the Holocaust. She was born on 14 Mey 1916 in Amsterdam and passed away there on 14 July 1980. After the war, on 26 September 1946, she married the widower of Rosette Canes, Emanuel Neter, who was born on 7 July 1910 in Amsterdam as a son of Barend Neter and Aaltje Walvisch, and together, they had two children plus a stepson from Emanuel’s first marriage.
Sara Neter Beesmer got widowed on 17 June 1972, when her husband Emanuel died in Bussum. The other five children Beesemer, viz. Abraham (1919), Roosje (1921), Jacob (1925), Paulina (1928) and Simon (1931) as well the parents, were all killed during the Shoah in Auschwitz and Sobibor. The only one of the five children who still got married was Roosje: she married 2 September 1942 Simon Peereboom, a son of Jozef Peereboom and Vrouwtje Sacksioni. Simon Peerboom survived the Shoah and passed away at the age on 80 on 1 September 2003. Roosje lost her life in Auschwitz in January 1944.
The David Beesemer family lived in Amsterdam. Their last known address was Jodenbreestraat 65 2nd floor; previously, they have lived at four other addresses. The entire family however, ended up during the first months of 1943 in the newly opened concentrationcamp Vught. Roosje and her husband Simon Peereboom already on 20 January 1943; Roosje eventually was murdered in Auschwitz on 28 January 1944 but her husband ended up in Buchenwald, with one of those so-called “eveacuation transports” where he, weakened and ill, experienced the liberation. The other members of the Beesemer family arrived in Camp Vught during the first days of March 1943.
Both the eldest boys, Abraham and Jacob, were sent from Vught to the “Aussenkommando” Moerdijk. Jews werd deployed in digging tank traps in the province of Zuid Holland and in the west corner of Noord Brabant. (source: www.tracesofwar.nl)
Abraham was deported in the direct transport from Vugth to Auschwitz on 15 November 1943, but Jacob has been sent already on 18 October 1943 to Westerbork, from where on 16 November 1943, he was deported to Auschwitz. Upon arrival both were put to work again there but in the end – as has been established after the war by the Dutch Authorities – both have lost their lives in the vicinity of Auschwitz: Abraham on 31 January 1944 and Jacob on 31 March 1944.
On 3 July 1943, the then 14-year olf Paulina Beesemer was transferred from Vught to Westerbork, from where she has been deported to Sobibor on 20 July. This transport arrived there on 23 July 1943 and Paulina was immediately murdered upon arrival there in the gas chambers.
Her parents, David Beesemer and Rachel Beesemer Stokvisch, as well her yougest brother, the 11-year old Simon Beesemer, were already transferred from Vught to Westerbork some months before, viz. On 31 March. They stayed in barrack 57 but David has been admitted too in the sick-bay 83. On 18 May 1943 they were all put transport to Sobibor, where they too, immediately upon arrival there on 21 May 1943 were murdered in the gas chambers.
Sources include the City Archive of |Amsterdam, family registration cards of David Beesemer, archive cards of the Beesemer family, Emanuel Neter, Simon Peereboom; Amsterdam residence card of Markenplein 5 1st floor; Closed family registration cards (OGD) Abraham Stokvisch; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of David Beesemer, Rachel Beesemer-Stokvisch and the children Beesemer; website ITS Arolson/camp card Vught/David Beesemer family; website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland/transports 18 May 1943, 20 July 1943, 25 January 1944, 15 and 16 November 1943; Website Joods Rotterdam/Moerdijk; death certificates Amsterdam, nr. 495 dated 17 Augustus 1951 from register A83-folio 84 for Abraham Beesemer and deed nr. 29 dated 14 September 1951 from register A86-folio 6verso.