Eliazer Schenkkan, diamond polisher and street market vendor of drygoods, was a son of Levie Schenkkan and Marianne Peper. He married in Amsterdam 7 September 1927 Claartje de Magtige, a daughter of Mozes de Magtige and Duifje Cohen. The couple had three children, namely Mary in 1927, Duifje in 1931 and Marianna in 1938. The complete family was killed in the Shoah.
After their wedding in 1927, Eliazer and Claartje lived at Jodenbreestraat 60 in Amsterdam. Also Eliazer and his family moved various times in the city, before they arrived 2 September 1935 in their house at Tugelaweg 82 3rd floor in Amsterdam-East. Their last known address however became Tugelaweg 88 1st floor, where they moved in per 18 May 1937.
On 8 April 1943, the Eliazer Schenkkan family was taken to Westerbork, where they had to stay in barrack 61. Efforts have been made through a statement of the ANDB (Dutch Diamond Union) to obtain postponement from deportation; the statement read that Eliazer worked in the diamond industry and as a union member from 6 October 1919 till 28 October 1919 and from 16 February 1929 till 15 September 1939, because:
“After the ANDB was liquidated in 1942 and transferred to the newly established National Labor Front (Nationaal Arbeiders Front), treasurer Blesgraeft, who became the leader of the NAF Business Group 'precious metal and diamond', was instructed that diamond workers had to continue working because the occupiers wanted Amsterdam to be global. reputation in this area. Blesgraeft was ordered to exempt 500 Jewish diamond workers from labor in Germany. They escaped deportation for the time being, but in May 1944 they were also deported. More than 2,000 Jewish diamond workers from Amsterdam were killed in concentration camps. "
But this statement by the ANDB was not of much help. On 20 April 1943 the family still was deported to Sobibor, where Eliazer, Claartje and their children Mary, Duifje and Marianne were killed immediately on arrival there on 23 April 1943.
Sources among others: City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Eliazer Schenkkan, archive cards of Eliazer Schenkkan, Claartje de Magtige en Mary, Duifje en Marianna Schenkkan, the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Eliazer Schenkkan, Claartje de Magtigie and Mary, Duifje and Marianna Schenkkan and the website vakbeweging in de oorlog.nl.