Jacob Speijer was the eldest son of Bernar Speijer and Marianna à Catan and was born on 1 September 1920 in Amsterdam. His parents were married in August 1919 and they then lived at Zwanenburgerstraat 45. During the years untill 1937 Jacob regularly had a new brother or sister; in the end 10, of whom one little brother died at the age of 1 year. Also his mother died at home in Amsterdam in 1942 but his father, all his sibs as well he himself, were muderded in the Shoah by the Nazis.
Jacob became a butcher after having worked as a bicycle boy. He lived at home with his parents and moved with them with the growing family; they lived at Zwanenburgerstraat, at Markenplein, at Korte Houtstraat, Rapenburgerstraat, the Nieuwegrachtje but since 1 September 1933 they all lived at Ben Viljoenstraat 19 1st floor in Amsterdam-East. Jacob Speijer was unmarried.
Jacob Speijer and two companions, the barber Gerson Fles and the poulterer Abraham da Costa da Fonseca, were involved in the illegal slaughter of cattle in a sheet-iron shed at Schagerlaan in Amsterdam. They were caught and arrested in early May 1941 and convicted of “fraudulent slaughter in a trial in June 1941.
For the time being, Gerson Fles was exempted from deportation by the Jewish Council because he had a so-called “Joods Lokaal” a Jewish Business – his barbershop – were only Jews were allowed to have their hair cut and shaved. Still, in the summer of 1943 he was arrested and would have been deported by train to Westerbork from the Panamakade in the Eastern Harbor area of Amsterdam. However he managed to escape from the passenger train and eventually survived the war.
The poulterer Abraham da Costa da Fonseca was deported to Auschwitz on 16 October 1942 but during a stop at Kozel, located ±80 km west from Auschwitz, 570 men between 15 and 50 years of age were forced to leave the train to be deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labour camps in Upper Silesia. After the war, there has been established that he has died in Mid-Europe on 4 May 1945.
It was not impossible since Jacob Speijer was a butcher, that he was exempted from deportation until further notice, as it appears from notes on his Jewish Council registration card. But in the end, he was arrested during the large-scale and secretly prepared raid of 20 June 1943, where more than 5500 Jews were arrested and carried off to Westerbork. Also Jacob Speijer fell victim to this fate and upon arrival in Westerbork, he was locked in in the penal barrack 67. On 29 June he was put on transport to Sobibor and on arrival there on 2 July 1943, he was immediately murdered in the gas chambers.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Bernard Speijer and Archive card of Jacob Speijer; police reports 1940-1945/arrest Jacob Speijer, Gerson Fles and Abraham da Costa da Fonseca; Photo Archive Beeldbank Amsterdams Stadsarchief/trial illegal slaughter; collection NIOD/Beeldbank WO2.nl/transport Panamakade to Westerbork; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Jacob Speiejr and the Wikipedia website jodentransporten fro the Netherlands.nl.