Alida Stodel was the first born of the four children of Jacob Stodel and Elisabeth van Stratum of whom two of them died shortly after their birth. Alida was born on 15 August 1908 in Amsterdam and married there on 12 August 1925 to Jacob Presser, a son of David Presser and Sara Milhado. Alida was a dressmaker and Jacob Presser started working as a warehouse clerk and later became a commercial salesman in lingerie. He was born on 13 June 1901 in Amsterdam.
After their wedding day, Alida and Jacob moved into a house at Oosterpark 3 2nd floor, where their two children were born: Sara was born on 8 May 1926 and Jack on 21 August 1930. When Alida’s mother Elisabeth van Stratum died in 1939, her father Jacob Stodel came to live in with them.
Sara Presser worked from 15 July 1942 as a carer and domestic help in a rest home at Nieuwe Herengracht 159, but according to a note on her registration card of the Jewish Council, "she has not held that position since February 10, 1943".
On 8 November 1942, her father was taken from Oosterpark 3 and taken to Westerbork, from where he was deported to Auschwitz on 10 November and then gassed immediately upon arrival.
On 25 May 1943, 7000 Jews had to report to the Amsterdamse Polderweg in East. The Muiderpoort train station is nearby. Here they will board a train that will take them to Camp Westerbork. Only a fraction responded to the call, much to the irritation of the Germans. 500 Jews gather on the Polderweg and waited for hours for the train, probably including the whole family of Jacob Presser.
On arrival in Westerbork they are immediately sent to Sobibor where they are immediately murdered in the gas chambers there upon arrival on 28 May 1943.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family registration cards of Jacob Stodel and David Presser; archive cards of Jacob Presser and Alida Stodel; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Jacob Presser, Alida Presser-Stodel, Sara and Jack Presser and the website oorlogsbronnen.nl.