Nagman Goudsmit, who was born 18 December 1885 in Amsterdam, was the youngest son of Jacob Goudsmit and Jansje Cohen. On 30 September 1942, when Nagman was 57 years of age, he married the 58-year old Betje Schenkkan in Amsterdam, a daughter of Levie Schenkkan and Marianne Peper. His parents have died already before the war: his father in 1931 and his mother in 1925. Both have been interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Muiderberg.
Nagman Goudsmit had five other siblings, namely Mietje, Joachim, Mozes, Sara Eva and Esther. Nothing else is known about Joachim (also known as Jochem) and Sara Eva. Mozes survived the Holocaust but Mietje, Esther and Nagman himself were murdered during the Shoah.
Nagman Goudsmit was a diamond sawyer and splitter by profession and left Amsterdam for Antwerp already on 26 April 1912 to get to work in the diamond industry there. He shortly lived in the Regentstraat 25 but returned to Amsterdam where he came living in Van Woustraat 216. Only in September 1921 Nagman Goudsmit left Amsterdam for Antwerp again and lived then at Tweelingstraat 22, but in December 1921 he could not find employment as diamond splitter; he lived on his savings, reason why he returned to Amsterdam, to his parents in Hemonystraat 22. In April 1928 he tried again, lived in Antwerp in Stanleystraat 24, but on 29 June 1928 he already returned to Amsterdam.
Nagman’s wife Betje Schenkkan was one of the ten children of Levie Schenkkan and Marianne Peper. Her father died already in 1912 and her mother in 1937. Of the ten children Elias died already three days old and Esther six months old. Both were buried in the Jewish Cemetery Zeeburg in Amsterdam. Al her other siblings, namely Marianne, Naatje, Heintje, Isaac, Schoontje, Eliazer, Gerrit and she herself were murdered during the Shoah.
Betje Schenkkan was a dressmaker. She left with her mother Marianne Peper on 5 July 1933 to Zandvoort but both returned to Amsterdam on 1 November 1934, where they then lived in Hunzestraat 75. After some more removals, Betje moved after the passing of her mother on 27 December 1937, on 17 August 1938 to Schipbeekstraat 7 1st floor in Amsterdam-South.
Those days also Nagman Goudsmit lived at Schipbeekstraat 7 – from there he was carried off to Westerbork, together with his wife Betje on 29 March 1943 and ended up in barrack 60. On 6 April both were put on transport to Sobibor where on arrival there on 9 April 1943 they immediately have been murdered.
Sources among others: City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Jacob Goudsmit and Levie Schenkkan, archive cards of Nagman Goudsmit and Betje Schenkkan; the Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, nr. 144698, images 506-520 and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cars of Nagman Goudsmit.