Biography

About Klara Freia Oudkerk, spouse of Samuel Vorst, and their son Joseph Lodewijk.

Klara Freia Oudkerk was the eldest of the three children of Ludovicus Oudkerk and Elsje Oudkerk and was born on 13 April 1904 in Antwerp and where they resided, but at some point they also moved to Sint Denijs, more southerly, where Klara's youngest brother Benjamin Roeland was born in February 1913.

On 27 May 1919, when she was 15 years old, Klara Freia came with her parents, brothers Hermanus Ludovicus and Benjamin Roeland from Sint Denijs in Belgium to Amsterdam where they moved into a house at 1e Boerhaavestraat 10. Klara Freia then stayed briefly with family in Den Helder, but on 15 July 1920 she was back in Amsterdam.

Klara Freia Oudkerk married Samuel Vorst on 17 February 1932 in Amsterdam, who was born there on 26 March 1905 at Rechtboomsloot 30 as the son of Joseph Vorst and Mietje Leger. However, from 1926 Samuel lived with his parents, brothers and sisters at Gelderschekade 63 2nd floor and they moved to the 2e Boerhaavestraat 65 ground floor in May 1932. 

From July 1920, Klara lived at home with her parents in the 1st  Boerhaavestraat 10 ground floor, but after the marriage of Klara and Samuel was concluded in February 1932, they moved into a house at the Pythagorasstraat 87 upper house themselves in Amsterdam-Oost, where on 27 December 1936 their son Joseph Lodewijk Vorst was born. 

Samuel Vorst was a religious teacher and schoolteacher special education. The later registration with the Jewish Council shows that he was an instructor at a school in 2e Boerhaavestraat. And the entry “occupation” on the family registration card from the Amsterdam Archive has shown that Klara Freia was also registered as a schoolteacher in 1932. Samuel Vorst was also a cantor in the synagogue of the N.I.Z. the Dutch Israelitic Hospital.

On 6 June 1940, the Samuel Vorst family moved from Pythagorasstraat to Sarphatistraat 107, 1st floor. That street name was banned by the Germans in 1942 and renamed Muiderschans. During the mandatory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands, the Vorst family was therefore registered at the address Muiderschans 107, 1st floor in Amsterdam.  

Samuel Vorst was provisionally exempted from deportation because of his functions, which also meant that Klara and his son Jozef Lodewijk were “exempted until further notice” too. But on the night of 18 to 19 September 1942, Samuel, Klara Freia and son Joseph Lodewijk were yet brought via the Hollandsche Schouwburg to Amsterdam Central Station and from there carried off by train to Westerbork. And two days later, on September 21, the Vorst-Oudkerk family, together with 710 other victims, were deported to Auschwitz. 

Upon arrival at the “Rampe” – platform - in Auschwitz on 24 September 1942, women and children were separated from the men between the ages of 15 and 50, where a number of whom were selected to be employed in Auschwitz or one of the sub-commandos. All others were immediately taken to the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau to be murdered there. This was also the fate of 38-year-old Klara Freia Vorst-Oudkerk and her 5-year-old son Joseph Lodewijk Vorst.

However, upon arrival in Auschwitz, Samuel Vorst appears to have belonged to the group of approximately 128 men between the ages of 15 and 50 who were still put to work, but it is unknown where Samuel ended up. The exact date of his death also appears to be unknown. 

After the war, the Dutch Red Cross conducted research into the consequences of the deportations and employment in the labor camps in Silesia and was able to determine that, with the exception of 1 Polish survivor of the transport of 21 September 1942, none of the other men from this transport was never heard of again after January 1943. 

The Dutch authorities adopted that conclusion and the Ministry of Justice subsequently instructed the Municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate for Samuel Vorst, which states that he died in Auschwitz on 31 January 1943.  

When parts of the Auschwitz administration were found later, including the so-called “Sterbebücher”, (death books), it emerged that Samuel Vorst was murdered in Auschwitz already on 9 October 1942. However, the Jewish Monument only publishes the legal date of death on its website as determined by the Ministry of Justice. (see also “The deviating date of death of Samuel Vorst”)

Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Ludovicus Oudkerk, Joseph Vorst and Samuel Vorst; archive cards of Samuel Vorst, Klara Freia Oudkerk and Joseph Lodewijk Vorst; Amsterdam residence cards/ Geldersekade 65 with Joseph Vorst and Pythagorasstraat 87 with Samuel Vorst; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Samuel Vorst, Klara Freia Vorst-Oudkerk and Joseph Lodewijk Vorst; the archives of the Red Cross, transport list of 18 to 19 September 1942 Amsterdam->Westerbork with the Vorst family; the publication by the Red Cross “Auschwitz III" edited  October 1952, deportation transports during the Cosel period/transport 21 September 1942; Amsterdam Archive, certificates of death no’s 403 and 568 for Klara Freia Oudkerk and Joseph Lodewijk Vorst from the A-registers A54-folio 69 and A54-folio 96verso and deed 569 for Samuel Vorst from the register A54-folio 96verso, made out in Amsterdam on 13 October 1950; website Museum en Memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau/Auschwitz Prisoners/Samuel Vorst and de Wikipedia website Jodenstransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/21 September 1942.

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