Emanuel Speijer the second son in the family of Bernard Speijer and Marianna à Catan and was born on 3 December 1921 in Amsterdam. He worked as a barber, later as an errand boy (by bike) and at the time of the mandatory registration of all the Jews in the Netherlands, he was a butcher’s hand. Maurice was born on 28 November 1923; he worked as a bicycle boy. Since 1933 they lived with their parents and sibs at Ben Viljoenstraat 19 1st floor in Amsterdam-East.
On their Jewish Council registration cards was stated the abbreviation “MIL”, which meant that he had been soldier in the military. On 18 July 1942 Emanuel and Maurice had to report in Westerbork, together with his brother Maurice. But the Jewish Council has made proposals those days to postpone some catagories of Jews from deportation, among them ex-militairy men, KNIL soldiers and also soldiers who have fought for the fatherland in the early days of May 1940. In the first instance this has led to real postponements, but already soon thereafter no more. (source Raymund Schütz).
For Emanuel Speijer it has meant just short time of exemption from deportation, as during the large-scale raids of early October 1942, also Emanuel was arrested and carried off to Westerbork, where he arrived between 3 and 5 October 1942. Due to the liquidation of all Jewish labour camps in the Northern Netherlands on Jom Kipur, 3 October 1942 when all Jewish forced labourers from those camps had to go to Westerbork, it was a great chaos there.
On 23 October Emanuel Speijer was put on transport to Auschwitz, together with another 987 deportees. The deportation train however made a stop in Kozel or Cosel, located ±80 km west from Auschwitz, where 170 men had to leave the train forcedly. They were destined for forced labour in the surrounding labour camps of Upper Silesia. However, those who remained on the train, were transported onwards to Auschwitz to be murdered there.
Most likely, Emanuel Speijer belonged to that group of 170 boys and men between 15 and 50 years of age, who were put to work as forced labourers. However, it is not known where Emanuel ended up then.
Reasoning from the place of death, as stated in his death certificate - Bavaria - it could be assumed that Emanuel Speijer has ended up in Bavaria in the so-called "end period" (1944/45) via those large evacuation transports. At that time, there the large concentration camp complexes Flossenburg and Dachau were located, which in turn were surrounded by countless so-called "Arbeitskommandos" (labour commands), such as Kaufering, Mühldorf, Landberg or Allach.
It is not known where exactly Emanuel Speijer lost his life. By order of the Ministry of Justice, the Municipality of Amsterdam drew up a death certificate on 3 April 1952, in which it was established that he died on 4 May 1945 in Bavaria.
At the other hand, despite Maurice belonged to the category “MIL”(military), he still has been already deported to Auschwitz on 24 August 1942, where he has arrived ± 26/27 August. He was put to work there but it is unknown where and what kind of work he had to do, nor his exact date of death is known.
The Dutch authorities have established after the war, also based on testimonials of survivors and research, that due the harsh and inhumane condtions there, Maurice Speijer no longer could be alive after 30 September 1942. The Ministry of Justice then commissioned the Municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate for Maurice Speijer, in which was established that he has died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Bernard Speijer, archive cards of Emanuel and Maurice Speijer; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Emanuel and Maurice Speijer; info Raymund Schütz; the Dutch Red Cross/publication Auschwitz VI, 1952, the large evacuation transports/page 54 Dachau and 65 Flossenburg; the Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the certificates of death no.385 dated 3 April 1952 (A95-65v) made out in Amsterdam for Emanuel Speijer and no.18 dated 18 August 1950 for Maurice Speijer (A4-4v).