Abraham Bernard Michel, who was born on 29 December 1890 in Amsterdam, was the 5th of 11 children of Friedrich Michel and Lena Reiwit. He was a tailor by trade and lived at home with his parents.
Even before he got married, Abraham Bernard turned out to have lived in with his brother-in-law and tailor Joseph Dobrowitsky at Sluisstraat 40 3rd floor for about 16 months. The reason for this could not be ascertained. Joseph Dobrowitsky was married to Abraham Bernard's sister Heintje Michel. At the end of April 1920 he returned home.
On 7 November 1923 he married Esther Cohen in Amsterdam, who was born there on 15 July 1897 as a daughter of Jacob Levie Cohen and Carolina Bos. The Michel-Cohen couple had one son, Friedrich, who was born on 6 November 1924.
After the marriage was concluded, Abraham Bernard Michel and his wife Esther Cohen moved into a house at Lepelstraat 36 II, and then relocated on 1 May 1929 to the Jodenbreestraat 105, 3rd floor. They continued to live there until they were arrested during the persecution of the Jews in Amsterdam and ended up in Westerbork on 14 January 1943.
Their son Friedrich Michel, a tailor, was “exempted because of function” by the Jewish Council, after which he came to work at the Joodse Kleermakerij Centrale (the central Jewish tailor workshops), part of the JCB, the Jewish Central for Vocational Training, which was located in the PIGOL building at Muiderstraat 21. From 27 July 1942, the Jewish Council had issued him with an I.D.number JR B-490-Kleermaker.
It is not unlikely that after his parents were taken to Westerbork in early 1943, Friedrich Michel “moved” to his cousin Salomon Lampie, a son of his uncle Mozes Lampie and aunt Bertha Cohen (his mother's sister). Salomon Lampie was married to Betje van Kleef on 8 November 1939 and they then moved into housing at Nieuwe Herengracht 51, where Salomon also had a bed- and blanket shop.
On 5 April 1941, Salomon and Betje moved to Jonas Daniël Meijerplein 19 1st floor, (renamed as Houtmarkt by the Germans during the war). Before his marriage to Betje van Kleef, Salomon Lampie lived with his parents and brothers at Weesperstraat 62 II.
Post-war notes on the registration card of the Jewish Council of Friedrich Michel show, that Friedrich decided to go into hiding at some point, but it is not known when and where. It turned out that he “emerged” in Belgium on 11 June 1945 and thus survived the Holocaust. Friedrich Michel was married in Amsterdam in 1947, divorced in 1952 and married again that same year, and died on 24 September 1990.
After Abraham Bernard Michel and his wife Esther Cohen arrived in Westerbork on 14 January 1943, they stayed in barrack 65 until they were both sent to Vught concentration camp on 20 February 1943, where Abraham Bernard was registered as a tailor and Esther as a diamond worker. Abraham Bernard stayed there in barrack B40-A and Esther in barrack B26-A.
On 23 May, both were again sent from Vught to Westerbork, where they had to await their deportation in barrack 61. In a large transport with a total of 2862 victims, Abraham Bernard Michel and his wife Esther Michel-Cohen were deported to Sobibor on 25 May, where they were immediately murdered in the gas chambers on arrival there on 28 May 1943, just like all other deportees. There were no survivors.
Sources include Amsterdam City Archives, family registration cards of Friedrich Michel (1860), Abraham Bernard Michel (1890) and Joseph Dobrowitsky (1882); archive cards of Abraham Bernard Michel (1890), Esther Cohen (1897), Friedrich Michel (1924), Bertha Cohen (1890), Mozes Lampie, Salomon, Willem and Jacob Lampie; The archives of the Red Cross/transport lists Amsterdam -> Westerbork 13/14 January 1943/Abraham Bernard Michel no. 90 and Esther Michel-Cohen no.91; Amsterdam residence card Houtmarkt 19I/Salomon Lampie; the archives of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Abraham Bernard Michel, Esther Michel-Cohen and Friedrich Michel; website ITS Arolson/camp cards Vught of Abraham Berhard Michel and Esther Michel-Cohen; Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/25 May 1943.