Abraham Bierschenk, who was born 11 August 1916 in Rotterdam, was the 3rd child of Bendictus Bierschenk and Rika Cosman. He married 7 December 1938 in Rotterdam the Non-Jewish Maria Pleuntje Owens. Abraham lived at Boxmeerstraat 89 in Rotterdam and his registration card at the Jewish Council shows that he had a child “under 16 years of age”.
Abraham was “exempted from deportation”. His exemption was stamped on his I.D. Possibly reason for Abraham to take some risks, who still have become fatal to him. He was arrested, presumably for some violation (hiding or get-away?) and then it went all very fast. He ended up in the prison of Breda but was immediately sent to Westerbork where he arrived 11 December 1942 and the next day, 12 December, he was deported already to Auschwitz.
Due to use of train material for soldiers who went on Christmas recess, this transport of 12 December was also the last transport of 1942. It consisted of 757 deportees and arrived in Auschwitz on 14/15 December 1942. 158 men were taken out and deployed as forced labourers but not a single woman. Nobody of this transport survived.
After the war, the Dutch Ministery of Justice ordered the municipality of Rotterdam to draw up a certificate of death for Abraham Bierschenk, in which has been established that Abraham Bierschenk lost his life in Auschwitz on 28 February 1943.
Sources among others: City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card of Benedictus Bierschenk, the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Abraham Bierschenk; death certificate Rotterdam V1-034v- cert. 1951 nr. 202 of Abraham Bierschenk; wikipedialist of Jew transports from the Netherlands and research and additions of the curator Shoah and Hollandse Schouwburg