Abraham Barend Heijmans, who was born on 20 April 1901 in Alphen aan den Rijn as son of the stock broker Joseph Heijmans from Appeltern and Susanna Gersons from Tilburg, married on 14 August 1928 in Zwolle the there born Helena Letter, born 8 June 1901 as eldest of the four children of Aron Israel Letter and Rosette Hamburger. The Heijmans couple had four children: on 4 April 1930 Rosalie Suze was born in Bussum, followed by Arno Joseph on 11 November 1932. Then Gustaaf Jozef, who was born on 19 November 1937 and Leonard on 18 May 1939.
Since 1921, Abraham Barend Heijmans lived already in Bussum and after Helena and Abraham Barend were married, she moved in with him. After the birth of their first child, the family moved to the Generaal de la Reijlaan 8, where their other three children were born. Dr. Abraham Barend Heijmans had his dental practice at home.
When up from 10 January 1941 the compulsory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands started, as ordered by the Germans, the family of Abraham Barend Heijmans was registered by the Jewish Council at the address Daniel Willinkplein 31 in Amsterdam-South.
However, documents from the City Archive of Amsterdam show also that Abraham Barend and his wife Helena Letter were registered per 3 September 1942 – without their children – at the address Amstel 67 in Amsterdam. There resided the Polish family of Isaak Krzyzwanowski.
Other notes, which were made on the registration cards of the Heijmans family, show that there have been made efforts to go into hiding, but it seems that it has failed. This is also apparent from another note on the registration cards of the Heijmans family: “Zurückstellung – postponement – postponement of deportation”. It is possible that the Contact Department of the Jewish Council has taken care of that postponement of deportation after the arrest of one or more family members, to reunite the family for deportation.
It is obvious that quite a lot has happened to the family that first week of Septembe 1942, resulting in the transport of the Heijmans family to camp Westerbork on 6 September 1942, followed by the deportation to Auschwitz on the next day, the 7th of September. Upon arrival there on 10 September 1942, the immediate killing took place in the gas chamber of Auschwitz-Birkenau of Helena Heijmans-Letter with her children Arno Joseph, Gustaaf Jozef and Leonard.
Daughter Rosalie Suze Heijmans was earlier placed in the family of Abraham Barend’s brother Nathan Heijmans in Amsterdam, where she was adopted as foster daughter. Together with the Nathan Heijmans family, she was killed in Sobibor on 2 July 1943.
Abraham Barend Heijmans and his family were part of the transport of 7 September 1942 from Westerbork to Auschwitz which included in total 930 deportees. The train made a stop in Kozel, a place located ±80 km west from Auschwitz, where 110 boys and men between 15 and 50 years of age had to leave the train, to be deployed then as slave labourers in the surrounding labor camps. Most likely, the then 41 year old Abraham Barend Heijmans was one of those who had to leave the train and he ended up eventually in Seibersdorf. Those, who remained in the train, among them Abraham Barend’s wife and children, were transported onwards to Auschwitz to be killed there upon arrival.
How Abraham Barend Heijmans fared in Seibersdorf and when exactly and under what circumstances he has lost his life there is unknown. After the war, by order of 14 October 1947 of the Court of Amsterdam, a certificate of death has been drawed up on 24 November 1947 by the Municipality of Amsterdam, in which was established that Abraham Barend Heijmans, dentist, has died in Seibersdorf in Upper Silezia in the end of October 1942.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Abraham Barend Heijmans and Helena Letter; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Abraham Barend Heijmans, Helena Heijmans-Letter and the children, Rosalie Suze , Arno Joseph, Gustaaf Jozef and Leonard Heijmans; the archive of the Red Cross, list of addresses of the Heijmans family of September 1942 at Daniel Willinkplein 31a Amsterdam; residence card Amsterdam of Amstel 67; the Wikipedia listing of Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the certificate of death nr. 104 dated 24 November 1947, made out by the Municipality of Amsterdam for Abraham Barend Heijmans.