Esther Barnstein was a daughter of Meijer Barnstein and Grietje Kooker. She was born on 14 May 1896 in Amsterdam and married there to David Henriques de la Fuente on 25 November 1920. He was a son of Jacob Henriques de la Fuente and Benvenida Engers and born on 27 January 1897 in Amsterdam.
Before David was married, he was an apprentice diamond worker and a member of the ANDB, (Algemene Nederlandse Diamanbewerkers Bond) the Diamond Workers Union and in May 1918 he was approved for the National Militia and despite his “palpitations”. He was classified for the Fortress Artillery but his wish was to be placed with the Infantry in Amsterdam which has been granted. Finally, from 1 October 1937 he was no longer called up for service and he was dismissed due to termination of service.
David and his wife Esther had two daughters in Amsterdam, namely Benvenida on 21 August 1921 and Margaretha on 11 January 1923; at some point, after the birth of the girls, the family has moved to Zandvoort, where they have lived till early November 1937. On 3 November 1937 they returned to Amsterdam and were registered at the address Tweede Jan Steenstraat 96 1st floor.
Meantime, David Henriques de la Fuente earned his money as a diamond polisher. Both his daughters were employed as sales ladies but Benvenida has yet become a home seamstress and on 1 April 1942 she got married to Lion Waas. Presumably David Henriques de la Fuente has gone into hiding and survived the Holocaust. After the war he emigratied to New York where he has been remarried.
Margaretha was the first of the Henriques de la Fuente family who was called up for the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz”, the provision of additional work under police surveillance in Germany. On 13 July 1942 she had to report for this and on 15 July she has been put on transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz, where she was put to work in forced labour. Unknown is however the kind of work she had to do, nor the exact date when she has lost her life there.
After the war, the Dutch Authorities have established, also based on testimonials of survivors and research, that Margaretha Henriques de la Fuente no longer could be alive after 30 September 1942. The Municipality of Amsterdam then has drawn up an official death certificate for her in which is stated that Margaretha Henriques de la Fuente has died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
Esther Barnstein, the wife of David Henriques de la Fuente was carried off to Westerbork on 9 September 1942 and the 11th deported to Auschwitz. On arrival there on 14 September 1942 she was immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of David Henriques de la Fuente, Esther Barnstein, Margaretha Henriques de la Fuente; membership ANDB/David Henriques de la Fuente;residence card Amsterdam Tweede Jan Steenstraat 96; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Esther Henriques de la Fuente-Barnstein en Margaretha Henriques de la Fuente, both their certificates of death, made out in Amsterdam: for Margareta deed 82 dated 6 July1950 from the A-register 41-folio 15verso and for Esther Barnstein deed 153 dated 8 June 1951 from the A-register 77-folio 27 and additions of the Henriques de la Fuente family at this website.