Engeltje van Tijn was the 2nd wife of Daniël van Thijn, a son of Jacob Levij van Thijn and Elisabeth Cohen, who was first married on 1 May 1885 in Schagen to Marianne Drukker, a daughter of Samuel Eleazar Drukker and Hester Fruitman. Daniël was born in Koog aan de Zaan on 9 March 1861; Marianne in Zaandam on 1 July 1860.
Daniël van Thijn and Marianne Drukker had three children, namely: Jacob on 29 October 1886, Samuel on 7 August 1888 and Levie on 12 January 1894, all born in Alkmaar. The eldest son Jacob was a shopkeeper in Amsterdam, where he died on 14 March 1939. As far as is known, Jacob was unmarried.
Samuel married Vronica Muller on 13 September 1928, who was born on 6 November 1890 in Meppel. Both were murdered in Auschwitz on 19 November 1942.
Levie married Leentje van Allemans and had two children together: Jonas on 7 October 1923 and Marcus on 31 January 1933. Jonas eventually died in Monowitz on 12 January 1944 and Marcus was murdered together with his parents in Auschwitz on 27 August 1943.
However, Marianne Drukker, the wife of Daniël van Thijn, died at the age of 40 in Alkmaar on 31 March 1901. Daniël van Thijn then remarried with Engeltje van Tijn, born on 22 November 1859 in Den Helder as a daughter of Meijer Joseph van Tijn and Jacomina van Tijn. However, on 1 February 1927, Daniël van Thijn died in Apeldoorn, after which an extract of the death certificate from Apeldoorn was registered in the Civil Registry of Zaandam, 10 days later.
In February 1941, the widowed Engeltje van Thijn-van Tijn lived with Ludovicus Oudkerk at Ruyschstraat 45 ground floor in Amsterdam, together with his wife Elsje Oudkerk-Oudkerk and their then unmarried son Benjamin Roeland van Tijn, who was born in 1913. Ludovicus Oudkerk's two aunts also lived there: Engeltje and Golda van Tijn. Benjamin Roeland Oudkerk married Betje Koster in 1942, survived the Holocaust and emigrated to Haifa in 1950.
Ludovicus Oudkerk, born on 23 November 1878 in Antwerp as the son of Levie Oudkerk and Hester Meiboom, was married to Elsje Oudkerk on 11 February 1903 in Den Helder; she was a daughter of Benjamin Oudkerk (Den Helder 1851-1923), who married in 1879 Klaartje van Tijn (Den Helder 1854-1898). Klaartje van Tijn was a daughter of Meijer Joseph van Tijn and Jacomina van Tijn and had two sisters: Golda and Engeltje.
After the death of her sister Klaartje Oudkerk-van Tijn in 1898, Golda van Tijn became the 2nd wife of Benjamin Oudkerk on 6 February 1900 in Zaandam. After the death of Marianne van Thijn-Drukker in March 1901, Engeltje van Tijn became the 2nd wife of Daniël van Thijn on 27 August 1901. No more children were born from the marriages of Golda to Benjamin Oudkerk and of Engeltje to Daniël van Thijn.
Seven children were born from the first marriage of Benjamin Oudkerk to Klaartje van Tijn, namely: Elsje (7 October 1880 – 4 June 1943 and wife of Ludovicus Oudkerk); Jacomina (7 November 1881 – 5 March 1943 and wife of Aron Salomon Kannewasser); Hijman (27 November 1882 – 15 May 1884); Meijer (11 June 1884 – 18 February 1945 and husband of Fijtje Elte); Mietje (22 September 1885 – 2 July 1943 and wife of David van Praag); Hijman (20 October 1886 – 16 July 1972 and husband of Debora Elte) and Belo, (born on 6 December 1887 but who survived the Holocaust with her husband Levie Elte and their two children).
Three children were born from the first marriage of Daniel van Thijn to Marianne Drukker, namely: Jacob (29 October 1886 – 14 March 1939); Samuel (7 August 1888 – 19 November 1942) and Levie (12 January 1894 –27 August 1943).
At the age of 83, Engeltje Van Thijn-van Tijn was taken to Westerbork on 28 January 1943, where she ended up in barrack 65. An employee of the Jewish Council, Albert Buchenbacher, advised her to be admitted to hospital because of a rheumatic heart muscle.
This required a power of attorney, which was requested from her cousin Meijer Oudkerk at Velasquesstraat 13. On 30 January a RAF (Rückstellung Aus der Fünten) was requested on the basis of an Ancestry Investigation (AO), which turned out to be in vain on 4 February.
On 6 February 1943, Friedrich Karl Polak, advisor at the Jewish Council, asked Buchenbacher to submit the previously requested power of attorney for signing on 6 February to Ludovicus Oudkerk from Ruyschstraat 45 (where Engeltje lived) and it was finally signed on 9 February and was sent to the “mandatary” after legalization.
However, all the administrative and bureaucratic hassle ultimately led to nothing, because that same day, on 9 February 1943, the 83-year-old Engeltje van Thijn-van Tijn was deported to Auschwitz with 1183 other victims, arriving there on 12 February 1943 and immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Then there was another sister of Engeltje, Golda and Klaartje: Beletje van Tijn. She was born on 1 June 1853 in Den Helder and married Moses de Leeuw on 21 May 1878 in Den Helder. They had two children: Salomon in May 1881 but he died 5 months later in September 1881. The other son was Meijer de Leeuw, born 1 April 1879, married to the RC Wilhelmina van de Graaf on 27 February 1908. Meijer ultimately died in Auschwitz on 15 February 1945.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Engeltje van Tijn; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Engeltje van Thijn-van Tijn; the regional archive of Alkmaar/archive Den Helder; City Archive of Amsterdam/closed family registration cards/Daniël van Thijn; family registration card of Moses de Leeuw; archive card of Meijer de Leeuw; website wiewaswie.nl; website openarchieven.nl; website stenenarchief.nl and website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl