Abraham Bernard Dobrowitsky from 1914 was still unmarried when he lived from 23 June 1936 with his sisters Judith and Anna and his mother Heintje Dobrowitsky-Michel on the 3rd floor of Slaakstraat 8 in Amsterdam. Before that they lived at Sluisstraat 40 3rd floor. When his sister Anna got married in September 1936 and left her parental environs, Abraham Bernard was left alone with his eldest sister Judith and mother Heintje Dobrowitsky-Michel (widowed since 12 May 1940), at no. 8 3rd floor.
Olga Cohen, born on 29 August 1911 in Watergraafsmeer, was married on 31 July 1935 to the religious teacher Abraham Hilsum, who was born in Amsterdam on 24 May 1912. That marriage did not last and the divorce was officially verdicted by the District Court of Amsterdam on 2 February 1942 in Amsterdam .
Based on the information available in the Amsterdam City Archives, it appears that on 21 April 1941, Olga no longer lived with her husband Abraham Hilsum at Dintelstraat 40. As of that date, Olga was registered as a lodger with Helma Wolf-Catz in Schubertstraat 88, 2nd floor, and in October 1941 she then came to live-in with Jozeph Fritz in Slaakstraat 8 2nd floor, where the Dobrowitsky's at house number 8, lived on the 3rd floor. This must be how the acquaintance between Olga and Abraham Bernard has come about.
It has been found that on the handwritten card of the Jewish Council of Olga Cohen, who had previously divorced Abraham Hilsum, Abraham Bernard's surname - Dobrowitsky - was used as the marriage name for Olga Cohen. It also appears from the post-war death certificate of Olga Cohen, drawn up in Amsterdam on 28 November 1947, that she is also listed therein as Olga Dobrowitsky-Cohen, wife of Abraham Bernard Dobrowitsky.
A marriage, or an application for marriage, should have taken place then in Westerbork during the summer of 1942, when both were in the camp. Inquiries in the Amsterdam City Archives show that Abraham Bernard and Olga were never officially married in Amsterdam. Not even in Westerbork, where, upon inquiry, nothing was found about a marriage or an application for one. The Archive Midden Drenthe in Beilen was also unable to find anything in the marriage register 1941-1945. Also an archive card with their names does not appear in their records.
Possibly Olga and Abraham Bernard had heard that if couples went on a transport together, they could stay together and therefore pretended to be married. The Midden Drenthe Archive also suggested the possibility that they “just acted as if”. Whether shortly after the war there were still too few possibilities to verify whether Olga was actually called Cohen or really Dobrowitsky-Cohen is not known. But it seems that her death certificate of 28 November 1947 from Amsterdam has been presumably based on the entries on her Jewish Council card.
According to a note on her Jewish Council card, the transport date for Olga Cohen would have been 21 August 1942, but that appears to be incorrect: information from Westerbork shows in some cases that the stated transport date is not always reliable. According to the transport lists, present in Westerbork, Olga Cohen and Abraham Bernard Dobrowitsky were deported together on 31 August 1942.
However, a correct note on Olga's Jewish Council card from after the war is that, according to the Standesamt Auschwitz, she died there on 19 September 1942 as a result of a stomach and intestinal catarrh (list 19c). That date is also included in her official death certificate from 1947.
The death certificate of Abraham Bernard Dobrowitsky dated 18 January 1952 (A-register 92-folio 75verso), in which his death after the war has been established by the Ministry of Justice on 31 March 1944 in id-Europe, also does not mention a married status. That deed also mentions the decision of the Ministry of Justice, which has determined, after investigations by the Red Cross and witness statements from survivors, that he died on 31 March 1944 in Mid-Europe.
Based on information from three official sources, the conclusion must therefore be, that there was no question of a marriage between Abraham Bernard Dobrowitsky and Olga Cohen.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, arcvhive cards of Abraham Bernard Dobrowitsky, Olga Cohen and Abraham Hilsum; the file cabinet of the Jewish Counsil, registration cards of Abraham Bernard Dobrowitsky and Olga “Dobrowitsky”-Cohen; information and a negative conclusion after research in the Amsterdam City Archives, in the Westerbork Memorial Center and in the Midden Drenthe Archives in Beilen into a possible marriage between Abraham Bernard Dobrowitsky and after correction of the transport date for both from Westerbork to “the East” the Wikipedia Website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/31 Autust 1942.