Abraham Ossendrijver was the youngest of the three children of Saul Ossendrijver and Clara Rodrigues Pereira. He was born 16 September 1910 in Amsterdam and married there on 17 March 1937 Johanna Sajet. She was born 11 December 1910 as a daughter of Emanuel Sajet and Mietje Allegro. Abraham and Johanna had no children together.
Johanna’s mother passed away in Amsterdam still before the outbroke of the war, on 12 March 1940 and she was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen. Her father however, was killed in Auschwitz on 7 December 1942. During the Shoah Abraham’s parents, Saul and Clara Ossendrijver were killed too: both were murdered in the gas chambers of Sobibor on 26 March 1943.
Abraham Ossendrijver practiced different professions. Before he got married, he started in the trade of his father: cigar maker. Then among others he was upholsterer and beef butcher. After his wedding he earned his money as a bookseller. Johanna was a garment seamstress.
Johanna was born in the Gerard Doustraat in Amsterdam and Abraham in the Camperstraat. At the time of his wedding Abraham still lived at home with his parents, then in the Pieter Lodwijk Takstraat and Johanna moved in with them. A few months after the wedding of March 1937, Abrahams parents moved into a house at Thérèse Schwarzeplein 19 in Amsterdam-East in July 1937 and Abraham and Johanna went along too.
In June 1942, the Germans ordered: “that a “polizeilicher Arbeitseinsatz” - (provision of additional work in Germany, guarded by the police) – of men and women from 16 to 40 years old would take place in Germany. This later resulted in the claim: “1200 registrations per day, with a start-up of 800.” Anyway, from 14 to 17 July 4000 people must “go to Germany”. Most probably Abraham and his wife Johanna were victims of this too. They were already registered in Westerbork on 20 July 1942 and from there, deported to Auschwitz on 27 July 1942.
Between 24 July and 2 August 1942 more than 4000 people have been put on transport. The transport of 27 July 1942 contained 1010 deporteed and arrived in Auschwitz on 29 of 30 July. Most likely, Abraham and Johanna were both selected to perform forced labor; they both then were about 31 years of age. It is not known on which date exactly and under what circumstances they there have lost their lives and it was therefore that the Dutch Ministry of Justice ordered the municipality of Amsterdam after the war to draw up certificates of death for Abraham Ossendrijver and for Johanna Ossendrijver-Sajet, in which was established that both have died on 30 September 1942 in Auschwitz.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Saul Ossendrijver and Emanuel Sajet, archive cards of Abraham Ossendrijver and Johanna Sajet; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Abraham Ossendrijver and Johanna Ossendrijver-Sajet; Certificates of death made out in Amsterdam on 22 September 1950 for Abraham Ossendrijver, cert.nr.392 in register A51-folio 67 and for Johanna Sajet nr. 536 in register A51-folio 91 and the book “Ondergang” by Dr. J. Presser, up from page 245 onwards (only Dutch language).