Elias Schijvenschuurder, born 21 April 1895 in Antwerp, was a son of Eva Jacoba Schijvenschuurder. He married in Amsterdam Saartje Theeboom on 10 August 1916, a daughter of Levie Theeboom and Fijtje van Cleef. On 26 February 1918 their daughter Evalina was born in Amsterdam.
Elias Schijvenschuurder was a diamond polisher by profession. Also before his marriage to Saartje, he came several times to Amsterdam, but on 8 July 1916 he lived at Tilanusstraat 29 in Amsterdam, where he lived in with Mozes IJzerman. After Elias was married, Saartje moved in with him there but already on 6 September 1916 they moved to Iepenweg 15 in Amsterdam, where they lived in too. In the end they certainly moved another thirteen times to other addresses in town, until they finally moved in to a house at Van Woustraat 101 1st floor in Amsterdam-South on 11 January 1939, which would become also their last known address in Amsterdam.
Their daughter Evalina lived at home with her parents. She worked as shop lady, as administrative assistant in a factory and as clothing seamstress. But 14 January 1942 she married Moritz Korper in Amsterdam, who was born 29 October 1917, a son of Simon Korper and Saartje Dresden. He too lived with his parents at Vrolikstraat 62 parterre but the day he married they both moved to Rijnstraat 89 3rd stock , where they then had their own house.
Moritz Korper however was already registered in Westerbork on 4 August 1942, presumably as a result from a call for the “Arbeitseinsatz”. On 7 August he was put on transport to Auschwitz and on arrival there put to work as a forced laborer. There, he lost his life on 18 September 1942. The cause of his death was “hart weakness” – as reported by the “Standesamt Auschwitz” to the Jewish Council in Amsterdam and as it is recorded on his registration card.
Moritz’ spouse, Evalina Korper-Schijvenschuurder, stayed behind in Amsterdam and she has been carried off to Westerbork, together with her mother SaartjeTheeboom, on 21 November 1942. Both were deported to Auschwitz on 4 December where on arrival on 7 December 1942, they were immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Elias Schijvenschuurder arrived in Westerbork between 3 and 5 October 1942. Possibly from a Jewish labourcamp in the North or the East of the Netherlands, but that is not known. All labor camps were closed down by the Germans on 3 October 1942 and the forced labourers were carried off to Westerbork to be deported to Eastern Europe. Elias was deported on 16 October 1942 to Auschwitz with a transport of more than 1700 prisoners.
The transport of 16 October 1942 was a so-called “Kozel-transport”; the train stopped at the station of a place called Kozel, located ± 80 km west from Auschwitz, where 570 boys and men between 15 and 50 years of age were forced to leave the train, to be deployed as forced laborers in the surrounding labor camps of Auschwitz. They, who remained in the train, were transported onwards to Auschwitz, to be killed there.
Elias Schijvenschuurder also belonged to the group of 570 men who were forcedly taken from the train. It appeared only in 2015 that he eventually has ended up as Jewish forced labourer in the "Reichs Autobahnlager St. Annaberg” in Upper Silesia in Poland. After the war, it was clear that Elias Schijvenschuurder had not survived the Shoah, but not where, when and under what circumstances he had lost his life. Therefore, on order of the Ministry of Justice after the war, the Municipality of Amsterdam had drawn up a certificate of death for Elias Schijvenschuurder, in which was established that he has died on 24 August 1943 in the Extern Command Bobrek.
However, during a research in 2015 in Poland to victims of among others the labour camp “Reichs Autobahnlager St.Annaberg” in Upper Silesia, several certificates of death were found, including those of Elias Schijvenschuurder. This document showed that he has died 28 December 1942 in labour camp St. Annaberg. On the death certificate is mentioned as an official cause of death as “pulmonary edema” (Lungenodem).
By establishing the date of death of Elias Schijvenschuurder however, the official Dutch date of death and place of 24 August 1943 in het Extern Command Bobrek is maintained, a juridical date and place established after the war by the Dutch Department of Justice.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Elias Schijvenschuurder, archive cards of Elias Schijvenschuurder, Saartje Theeboom, Evalina Schijvenschuurder en Moritz Korper; Death certificated for Elias Schijvenschuurder from Amsterdam, nr. 548 from A-reg.92-fol.93 dated 18 Jan 1952; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Elias Schijvenschuurder, Saartje Theeboom, Evalina Schijvenschuurder en Moritz Korper; Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit nederland.nl and Edwasd Haduch, Kedzierzyn-Kozle (Poland), the death certificate of Isaac van Gigh from the Peoples Registry (Standesamt) Annaberg.