Jacob Stokvisch, the son of Abraham Stokvisch and Sara Waas, was born on 16 June 1898 in Antwerp. In addition to being a casual worker, Jacob's father was also a disc sander and therefore regularly stayed in Antwerp with his wife and children. Jacob was the only son in the family of four children. His sisters were Marianne (1892), Roosje (1893) and Rachel (1895), who were still born in Amsterdam.
Abraham Stokvisch left Amsterdam for Antwerpn on 21 June 1895 for the first time. His wife Sara Waas and her three daughters followed on 7 September. They stayed in Antwerp until 15 August 1903, returned to Amsterdam, but left again for Antwerp on 18 November of that year. In the meantime their fourth child and son Jacob was born there in 1898.
Jacob, who earned his living as a casual worker and window washer, got married about 1923 in Antwerp to Griertje Boas, the youngest of the five children of Boas Boas and Rachel Mechanicus. She was born in Amsterdam on 20 May 1898 and became later employed as a dressmaker.
After being born, Grietje Boas relocated more than one time with her parents to Antwerp, Borgerhout and back to Amsterdam. There she was accomodated with a niece of her stepmother, Alexandrina Boas-van West, Margaretha van West, who was married to Nachman Schouten and lived at Valkenburgerstraat 178. In September 1916, when Grietje’s parents again returned from Antwerp in Amsterdam, Grietje joined the family again, They then found lodging at Nieuwmarkt 9 with Joseph van de4r Horst.
On 29 January 1923, Grietje Boas left Amsterdam for Antwerp definitively, and married there Jacob Stokvisch. The Stokvisch-Boas couple had four children, viz. Rachel Sara on 18 September 1925, Sara on 17 September 1927, Eva on 15 Februari 1931 and Lea op 15 Juni 1938. Only Eva was born in Deurne, the other daughters in Borgerhout. The last known address of the family was Confortalei 184 in Deurne.
The entire Stokvisch family was arrested in Antwerp during the major raids at the end of August and the beginning of September and carried off to the Caserne Dossin assembly camp in Mechelen. From there Grietje Stokvisch and her four daughters were deported with the 8th convoy from Mechelen to Auschwitz, which left on 8 September 1942 and arrived in Auschwitz on 10 September 1942.
On the other hand, her husband Jacob Stokvisch was only deported with the 15th convoy (XV) which left for Auschwitz on 24 October 1942. A stopover was made in Cosel, where 281 men between the ages of 15 and 50 were forced to leave the train to be employed as forced laborers in the surrounding camps of Upper Silesia. Those who remained on the train, mainly women and children, were transported further to Auschwitz and were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau upon arrival on 10 September 1942. Among them were Grietje Stokvisch-Boas and her daughters Rachel Sara, Sara, Eve and Lena.
Deportation of Jacob Stokvisch, however, followed not until 24 October 1942. This transport of the combined 14th and 15th convoy with a total of 1471 deportees, made no stopover in Cosel and arrived in Auschwitz on 26 October 1942.
Because there was a great lack of "laborers" among the Germans, it is possible that Jacob Stokvisch was employed somewhere after his arrival, but where is unknown, just like his exact date of death. The Belgian authorities have therefore taken as his place of death "Unknown" and as date of death the date of his transport to the "East", i.e. 24 September 1942, which has been copied by the Joods Monument website
Sources include the Dossiers of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, no’s 107485 image 263-282 and no.84263 image 84-101; the City Archive of Amsterdam/Peoples Registry and copied closed family registration cards (overgenomen delen)/Stokvisch; family registration cards of Boas Boas, Nachman Schouten and Grietje Boas; the Memorial of the Deportation of the Belgian Jews/ Convoy 8 of 8 September 1942 page 24 and Convoy 15 of 24 September with Jacob Stokvisch/page 27-28.