Elisabeth Reiss was the 6th child of Barend Reiss and Hanna Marie Root and was born in Amsterdam on 2 January 1920. On 16 August 1939 she married there Abraham Konstenaar, who was born 2 May 1917 as son of Isaac Konstenaar and Esther Engelschman. The couple had no children.
Before Abraham was wed, he worked as hairdresser and butcher; afterwards he worked as food inspector but later he became a tailor. His wife was also a tailor. After their wedding the couple lived at Tugelaweg 124 in the Transvaal district of Amsterdam-East, where Abraham previously lived at nr. 12 and Elisabeth at nr. 97.
It appeared from notes, made in December 1942 on the Jewish Council cards of Abraham Konstenaar, that his wife Elisabeth Reiss, who was a tailor, had a “Sperre” (exemption from deportation), because she worked for the “Wehrmacht” (Army). However on her I.D. the “Sperre stamp” lacked, but as a person “exempted from deportation until further notice” she was known in the so-called “Sperrekartothek” (card index).
Because of the exemption of Elisabeth Reiss, this should have been also valid for her husband Abraham Konstenaar. However, he was arrested during the large-scale raids in Amsterdam of early October 1942 and ended up in Westerbork . One of the many notes on one of the cards of Abraham Konstenaar read: “Man since months in Westerbork. Spouse gesperrt. Photo copy in Westerbork”
As a result of this all was that Abraham Konstenaar, who had to move 13 November 1942 from barrack 85 – were also the so-called Barnevelders stayed – to barrack 64, was released from Westerbork on 18 December 1942 and could return to Amsterdam. Unfortunately it turned out that his personal record card and his distribution documents could no longer be found, on the basis of which the Westerbork administration made a note on his card: “provide an explanation for this”.
However, it took not so long before Abraham and his wife Elisabeth were arrested again: on 10 February 1943 they both were carried off to concentration camp Vught. Abraham ended up there in barrack 42b but it is unkown where his wife had to stay. Presumably after 2 April 1943, when a letter from Abraham Konstenaar was received by the Jewish Council, he was transferred to the “Aussenkommando Moerdijk”, where he was deployed as forced labourer and where he had to stay in barrack 2A.
All the time Abraham was in Moerdijk, his wife Elisabeth was in Vught. When he returned to Vught, they were both punt on transport from Vught via Westerbork to Auschwitz on 15 November 1943. On arrival there they most likely have been deployed again to forced labor. It is unknown on which date exactly they have lost their lives there. It is therefore that the Dutch Ministry of Justice after te was ordered the City of Amsterdam to draw up certificates of death for Elisabeth Konstenaar-Reiss and for Abraham Konstenaar, in which has been established that the both have died on 31 January 1944 in Auschwitz.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Barend Reiss, archive cards of Elisabeth Reiss and Abraham Konstenaar; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Elisabeth Konstenaar-Reiss and Abraham Konstenaar; Wikipedia website listing buildings in Kamp Westerbork and Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.