Elias Gompers was born in Amsterdam on 5 December 1873 as son of Levie Barend Gompers and Schoontje Jacob Boas, a family with nine children: Mietje, Barend, Sara, Elias self and Philip, who all have been killed during the Holocaust. Two children, Joseph and Marcus, have died before the war, Naatje passed away in Amsterdam in September 1940 and one son, Michel, has survived the war.
Elias married in Hilversum on 1 May 1901 Esther Wessel, who was born 22 March 1874 in Amsterdam as daughter of Barend Wessel and Klaartje Gompers. The couple had two children, namely Louis in 1902 and Bernard in 1907.
The eldest son Louis Elias Gompers (Lou) married 9 August 1927 Sonny Sturhoofd, a daughter of Jacobus Sturhoofd and Esther Loonstein. They lived at Valeriusstraat 58 parterre, but since 4 March 1941 they stayed in the Accacialaan 24B in Doorn, where they have survived the Holocaust. Up from November 1945 they still lived in Doorn for some time in the Woestduinlaan 59, untill they returned to Amsterdam in 1949 and found housing in the Schubertstraat 30 parterre. On 16 April 1951 they emigrated to Santa Monica in California.
After the liberation Lou Gompers and Sonny Sturhoofd took care of the twins Froukje and Salomon van Bergen, both children of Izak van Bergen and Lea Salomina Gompers (a cousin of Lou Gompers). During the Shoah, their parents were killed in 1944. In 1951 Lou and Sonny took the children with them to Santa Monica and raised them under the name “Gompers”.
The youngest of the two brothers, Bernard Elias Gompers, married Betje Cosman in Amsterdam on 17 August 1932 and they had two children, Elly Elisabeth and Max Elias. During the efforts of Bernard to go into hiding, they were caught in September 1942 and carried off to Westerbork. Bernard ended up in the penal barrack 66 but eventually deported to Sobibor on 17 March 1943 and on arrival there on 20 March 1943 immediately killed.
His wife Betje Cosman and both their children Elly Elisabeth and Max Elias, were also brought to Westerbork, on 12 September 1942 and already the 14th deported to Auschwitz. On arrival there, they were immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Elias Gompers was a diamond splitter by profession. As such, he stayed with his wife for quite some time in Antwerp and Berchem. On 20 March 1937 they returned to Amsterdam and found housing in the Oude IJsselstraat 36. In June 1940 they moved to Valeriusstraat 58 parterre and in February 1941 to Biesboschstraat 16 2nd floor. In September 1941 another removal followed, now to Emmastraat 5 1st floor, where Elias’s wife Esther Wessel passed away on 8 May 1942; she was interred in the Jewish Cemetery at Muiderberg.
On 5 June 1942 the just widowed Elias Gompers went living in with the family of his son Bernard, who lived at Roerstraat 26 3rd floor in Amsterdam-South. But also Elias became a victim of the failed effort of his son Bernard of going into hiding with his family in September 1942. Elias was arrested too and carried off to Westerbork on 12 September 1942 and he too was deported to Auschwitz already the 14th of September. On arrival on 17 September 1942 there, together with his daughter-in-law Betje Gompers-Cosman and his grandchildren Elly Elisabeth and Max Elias, he has been immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau,
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive card of Elias Gompers, archive card of Louis Gompers; website wiewaswie.nl/marriage Gompers-Wessel; website hetstenenarchief.nl/grave of Esther Wessel; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Elias Gompers and Louis Gompers; the Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, nr. 167733, image 401-413 and additions of visitors of the website.