Alexander Sealtiel was the first born son from the second wedding of his father Benjamin Sealtiel to Sophia Booleman. Alexander was born 12 June 1895 in Amsterdam; he was a commercial traveller and diamond polisher by profession. In 1897 his sister Rachel was born. His father Benjamin Sealtiel passed away in 1902 at the age of 47 years. His first wife Rachel Dreese died already in 1892, leaving him behind with four children, namely Jozef, Sara, Esther and Anna. Two other children, Schoontje and Debora, had died already before at very young ages.
It was very likely that after the passing of Benjamin Sealtiel, his 2nd spouse Sophia Booleman remained in great poverty. Probably that is why Alexander in 1902 was brought to the Portuguese Israelitic Boys Orphanage at Jodenbreestraat 89 and his sister Rachel in 1903 to the Portuguese Israelitic Girls Orphanage at Nieuwe Prinsengracht 17. Alexander stayed there about 10 years and Rachel 12 years, before they could return to their mother.
Early September 1926 Alexander Sealtiel left Amsterdam for Antwerp, where he got married 18 November 1926 in Wilrijk to Margaretha Davids, born in Amsterdam on 21 October 1898 as daughter of Marcus Davids and Henriette Pakkedrager. The couple stayed at Wilrijk till 2 August 1920; then they returned to Amsterdam, where they came living at Wakkerstraat 31. On 29 May 1937 the Sealtiel couple left to Van Speijkstraat 2 in Zandvoort; in October 1939 they moved to Bussum and in December 1939 their addres became Waalstraat 115 parterre in Amsterdam.
Alexander Sealtiel and his wife Margaretha Davids were registered in Westerbork on 3 October 1942 and already put on transport on 5 October 1942 to Auschwitz. This transport with 2012 deportees contained also the first part of the 10.000 people who were deployed in the Jewish Labour camps, which were all closed down by the Germans on Jom Kipur 3 October 1942. All forced labourers were carried off then to Westerbork, but it is not known whether Alexander Sealtiel has been deployed as force labourer in one of the Jewish Labour camps in the North or East of the Netherlands, or not. Also possible is that he and his wife Margaretha were arrested during the large-scale raids of early October in Amsterdam and were taken from their homeaddress at Waalstraat, to be carried off to Westerbork.
The transport of 5 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 550 boys and men between 15 and 50 years of age were forced to leave the train, to be deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labor camps of Auschwitz. Those, who remained in the train, were transported onwards to Auschwitz, to be killed there. Also Margaretha Sealtiel-Davids met that fate: on arrival there on 8 October 1942 she was immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Alexander Sealtiel also belonged to the group of 550 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 Alexander Sealtiel 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 Alexander Sealtiel, in which was established that he has died on 31 August 1943 in Mid-Europe.
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 Alexander Sealtiel. This document showed that he has died 9 January 1943 in labour camp St. Annaberg. On the death certificate is mentioned as an official cause of death as “left-sided pneumonia and general body weakness”. (linksseitige Lungenentzündung und allgemeine Körperschwäche).
By establishing the date of death of Alexander Sealtiel however, the official Dutch date of death and place of 31 August 1943 in Mid-Europe 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 cards of Benjamin Sealtiel and Alexander Sealtiel, archive cards of Alexander Sealtiel and Margaretha Davids and the “bijzondere registers”(special registers) for Alexander and Rachel Sealtiel; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards Alexander Sealtiel, archive card of Margaretha Sealtiel-Davids; Death certificate from Amsterdam for Alexander Sealtiel, nr. 322 dated 27 Dec.1951 from the A-reg. 91-fol.55v; Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and Edward Haduch, Kedzierzyn-Kozle (Poland), the death certificate of Alexander Sealtiel from the Peoples Registry (Standesamt) Annaberg.