Henri Gomperts was a son of the 2nd marriage of Barend Philipp Gomperts and Eva Meijer. He married Rachel Cornelia Citroen, a daughter of Jacob Citroen and Nanette Lankhout. Their chupah was Sunday 24 February 1914 at the “Neie Shul” (New Synagogue) in Amsterdam. From this marriage their son Ernst was born in December 1914. However, Rachel Citroen passed away at the young age of 27 years and she was interred in the Jewish Cemetery of Muiderberg on 15 January 1922.
On 3 January 1933 Henri Gomperts remarried the widow of Willem J. Goudeket, Frederika Philips, a daughter of Simon Jacobus Philips and Helena Margaretha Ornstein. From this marriage, no children were born.
Henri Gomperts was born into a large family. His father Barend Philipp Gomperts and his first wife Mietje Heijmans had eight children, of whom two have been killed in the Shoah (Samuel Barend and Paulette), and one child has survived the Holocaust. Henri’s half-siblings Philip Barend, Elie Barend, Abraham Mozes, Minette, Bertha and Marianne passed away already before the war.
From the 2nd marriage of Barend Philipp Gomperts four children have been born, among them Henri self. One baby sister died one month afther her birth and then there were Albert Barend and Carolina.
Eexcept “merchant” Henri Gomperts was also president of the S.A. Rudelsheim Foundation, an institution for mentally retarded children. His brother Albert Barend was attorney at law and a member of the Jewish Council of Amsterdam and his sister Carolina, married to Meijer Lezer, founded in Amsterdam the well known factory for ladies fashion blouses Gomperts & Lezer. Also Henri was an associate in this factory.
Henri Gomperts has been registered in Camp Westerbork on 20 June 1943, where he stayed in barack 63. Together with his wife Frederika Philips he was deported to Bergen Belsen on 15 February 1944 were he lost his life on 18 July 1944. His wife died already one month before: she lost her life on 23 June 1944.
Henri’s unmarried son Ernst stayed in France, but came from Lyon to Amsterdam in January 1936 and resided at his parental address Vondelstraat 65. At some point he left Amsterdam again and went to France where he resided at 32 bis Rue du Cotentin in Paris 15e, his last knonw address. Bases on information from the file cabinet of the Jewish Council and accordingly SER Paris, Ernst Gomperts, sometimes known as David Gomperts, has been deported from Drancy on 19 July 1942 into the direction of Upper Silezia and presumably upon arrival in Auschwitz some days later, immediately killed.
City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Henri Gomeprts, Frederika Philips and Ernst Henri Gomperts; residence cards of Vondelstraat 65 and Krugerplein 2 I; website Akevoth/Burial Permits regarding Rachel Cornelia Citroen; file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Henri Gomperts, Ernst Henri Gomperts (sometimes also known as David Gomperts) and Frederika Philips; List of Transports from Drancy to Auschwitz by Beate Klarsfeld regarding Ernst (David) Gomperts.