Rachel Davids was a daughter of Louis Davids and Jetje Moscoviter. She was born in Rotterdam on 21 January 1905 and married there the bookbinder Emanuel Fresco, who was born in Den Haag on 23 March 1905 as a son of Aäron Fresco and Grietje van Leeuwen. On 11 October 1936 their son Aron was born, however, he died already on 13 October 1936, only 2 days old. On 10 March 1941 in Den Haag again a son was born, named Louis, who was killed in Auschwitz, together with his mother.
One day before his marriage to Rachel Davids, Emanuel Fresco was officially registered in the Population Registry of Rotterdam; they went living in the Bokelstraat 13a, but moved in 1937, one year after the death of their son Aron, to Kruisstraat 31b. However, due to the bombing of Rotterdam on 14 May 1940, Rachel and Emanuel were forced to relocate again and ended up eventually in the Poeldijkschestraat 69, located in the Schilderswijk (Painters District) of Den Haag, where in 1941 their son Louis was born.
From notes at the registration card of Emanuel Fresco from the file cabinet of the Jewish Council it appeared “that he has been arrested in Den Haag on 2 october 1942 during a round-up there” and carried off to Westerbork, where he arrived in the night of 3 to 4 October 1942. Whether his wife Rachel Davids and their son Louis arrived in Westerbork at the same time as Emanual, is not quite clear. Rachel however was deported on 23 October 1942 from Westerbork to Auschwitz, together with her nearly 2-year old son Louis and on arrival there on 26 October 1942 immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz Birkenau.
On the other hand, Emanuel Fresco survived the Holocaust. Notes as written on his registration card from the Jewish Council after the war read: “in November 1942 escaped from Westerbork and not deported. Via Spain and Portugal in November 1943 to England. Lives in 1963 at Amiraal de Ruijterweg 46b in Rotterdam.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of Emanuel Fresco and Louis Davids; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Emanuel Fresco, Rachel Fresco-Davids and Louis Fresco and the certificate of death made out in Den Haag, nr. 3924 dated 15 October 1936.