Benedictus Bierschenk’s father, Jacob Bierschenk, who was born in Leeuwarden 23 August 1844, settled after the death of his first wife Hester Frenkel in Leeuwarden in 1870, the next year in Tiel. There he married 27 October 1871 Aaltje Boas, who was born there 27 July 1850. Toghether they had ten children, namely Betje, Aaltje, Rebekka, Samuel, Abraham, Kaatje, Levie, Jette, Koosje and Benedictus in 1888.
The Jacob Bierschenk family moved 24 August 1897 from Tiel to Rotterdam. Jacob and Aaltje passed away already far before the war: Jacob in 1919 and Aaltje in 1928 and both were interred in the Jewish Cemetery Toepad in Rotterdam. Of their children, Rebekka, Levie and Betje died already before the war, Kaatje survived the Holocaust but Samuel, Abraham, Jette, Koosje and Benedictus were killed during the Shoah.
Benedictus Bierschenk, born 3 October 1888 in Tiel, married 3 March 1910 in Rotterdam Rika Cosman, who was born 31 December 1889 in Amsterdam as daughter of Aaron Cosman and Betje Hilversum.
The Benedictus and Rika Bierschenk couple had a large family: between December 1910 and May 1933, sixteen children were born, of whom three have died already in childhood: Samuel, who was only 30 days on 11 June 1918; Jette just 2 ½ years of age on 17 December 1924 and Benedictus on 10 September 1928 after he just had celebrated his 5th birthday.
Of the remaining thirteen children, six were married to Non-Jewish partners, namely Aaltje, who married 1 May 1929 Hendrik van Aken; Jacob, who married 27 May 1936 Nelly Corino; Betje, who married Arnoldus Bijl; Abraham, who married 7 December 1938 Maria Pleuntje Ouwens; Samuel was married to Maria Henneman and Levie to Petronelle Theodora Kollen. Of these Bierschenk children, only Aaltje and Betje survived the Holocaust. They did not live at home with their parents anymore but lived at their own addresses in Rotterdam. All other Bierschenk family members were killed in the Shoah.
The father of the family, Benedicctus Bierschenk was a textile dealer. He lived with his wife and children at Breede Hilledijk 161a in Rotterdam, which is located between the African Disctrict and Katendrecht. On 27 January 1943, he was carried of from there to Westerbork where he ended up immediately in the hospital barracks. One month later, on 25 February he passed away there and was interred 1 March 1943 in Assen.
His wife, Rika Cosman, born 31 December 1889 in Tiel, was carried off to Westerbork only 10 April 1943. That is after the ordinance that the Jews in the provinces had to go to either Westerbork or Vught. From 11 April 1943, the Netherlands is “Judenrein” (free from Jews), excepted Amsterdam, the Jews in hiding, the mixed marriages and the Jews who are still in Westerbork and Vught.
As specified by the municipality of Rotterdam, the children Jette, Kaatje, Benedictus, Rebekka and Esther lived still at home with their parents in April 1942 at Breede Hilledijk 161a in Rotterdam. They were all taken with their mother Rika Cosman on 10 April 1943 from there to Westerbork and accommodated in barrack 70. After ten days, on 20 April they were all put on transport to Sobibor, where Rika Cosman and her five children Jette, Kaatje, Benedictus, Rebekka en Esther immediately got killed in the gas chambers there on arrival the 23rd April 1943.
Sources among others: City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card of Benedictus Bierschenk; websites wiewaswie.nl and openarchieven.nl; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Benedictus Bierschenk, Rika Bierschenk-Cosman en Jette, Kaatje, Benedictus, Rebekka and Esther Bierschenk and research and additions of the curator Shoah and Hollandse Schouwburg.