Hartog Gompers was a son of Philip Barend Gompers and Heintje Jacob Boas. Seven of the eleven children of this couple have been killed during the Holocaust. Hartog himself but also his siblings Mietje, Sara, Esther, Levie, Eliazer and Clara. Hartog was born 5 April 1874 in Amsterdam but according to the enlisting register of the Militia, he was exempted from the military service in the National Militia because of “body defects”.
Hartog Gompesr was married in Weesp on 8 December 1904 to Johanna Levie van Berg, a daughter of Levie van Berg and Sara van Gelder. Hartog and Johanna had two daughters together, namely Hendrika (Riek) in 1905 and Henriette (JHetty) in 1908.
After his wedding, Hartog and Johanna lived at Haarlemmerdijk 126 in Amsterdam but they still moved a few more times: on 15 January 1907 they moved in a house at St. Antoniebreestraat 74 parterre, where Hartog had a shop with hats, caps, umbrella’s and furs, which however had to be closed down in July 1908 due to a bankruptcy.
On 3 May 1912 the family left for Nieuwe Hoogstraat 26, where Hartog had an umbrella shop again and in 1929 they moved over to Nieuwe Hoogstraat 13, where they came living in with their eldest daughter Hendrika and her husband Yassef Pardovitch.
Hendrika meanwhile was married in Amsterdam in 1929 to Yassef Pardovitch, who was born in 1899 in Constantinopel and who traded in furs in Amsterdam. In 1930 Hendrika and Yassef had a son : Wladimir. The Pardovitch family lived thereafter in the Sarphatistraat 147 and in 1938 they all moved to Volkerakstraat 35.
The Pardovitch family was registered in Westerbork on 13 July 1944, where they had to stay in barrack 85. Yassef had applied for and received Turkish passports for all of them. They have been deported with the last transport from Westerbork as “Ausländische Nationalität – Türkei” ( Foreign Nationalities – Turkish) to Bergen Belsen where they survived the Holocaust. After their return to Holland, they lived in March 1946 again in Amsterdam.
Hartog’s daughter Henriette married in April 1936 Heinz Levy from Hannover, who was born there in 1904. In 1939 their daughter Yolanda was b orn and the Levy family lived at Prinsengracht 653 in Amsterdam. Despit the “Sperre” (exemption from deportation for the time being) they were carried off to Westerbork in July 1943 but discharged from there on 6 September 1943. However, at the end of September they were registered in Westerbork again and eventually deported to Auschwitz on 16 November. Henriette and Yolanda were immediately killed on arrival there on 19 November 1943. Heinz Levy lost his life due to forced labor somewhere in Mid-Europe on 31 March 1944.
Hartog Gompers’ wife, Johanna Levie van Berg, who was born 17 March 1873 in Groningen, passed away in Amsterdam at the age of 67 years on 28 February 1941. She was interred in the Jewish Cemetery of Muiderberg on 2 March 1941.
On 7 May 1943 the Pardovitch family, where Hartog Gompers still lived in with, was forced to move to Afrikanerplein 17 in the Transvaal district of Amsterdam-East. Hartog however was exempted from deportation (“gesperrt”); he had this job with the Jewish Council in the department bread supply at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 58. Despite of that, he has been arrested during the large-scale and secretly prepared raid of 20 June 1943 and carried off to Westerbork where he had to stay in barrack 62.
On 13 July 1943 Hartog Gompers with nearly another 2000 deportees were put on transport from Westerbork to Sobibor and on arrival there on 16 July 1943 immediately killed.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive card of Hartog Gompers, archive cards of Yassef Pardovitch and Heinz Levy; website Akevoth/Mokum/Burialpermits/grave Johanna Levie van Berg; website Wikipedia list of Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl; the Red Cross archives, transportlist from 13 Sept 1944 for the Pardovitch family/NL-HaNRK-2050_0672_00008.jpg and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Hartog Gompers, Hendrika Gompers, Henriette Gompers, Yassef Pardovitch, Heinz Levy, Wladimir Pardovitch en Yolanda Levy.