Henriette Cato Oudkerk was the daughter of Heiman Oudkerk and Helena Sondervan, born on 28 September 1906 and lived at home with her parents at Roelof Hartstraat 26 III in Amsterdam-South. She worked as an office clerk and had her 5-year HBS-A diplomas, also known as the O.H.S. – the Public Trade School, as well as for shorthand typing and spoke very fluent English.
In 1941, Henriette Cato was registered with the Jewish Council of Amsterdam, where she made a big impression. On 20 July 1942, she was given a position as a secretary at the General Service of the Jewish Council, “Information” department at Lijnbaansgracht 366, and was therefore “provisionally exempted” from deportation, which meant that not only she, but also her housemates, her parents in this case, were not transported for the time being.
However, her younger brother Emanuel Herman had already been arrested on 11 June 1941 during the 2nd raid of Amsterdam and sent to Mauthausen, where he died on 18 October 1941. On 21 April 1943, Henriette Cato Oudkerk married her distant cousin Gerard Oudkerk in Amsterdam. He was a son of the tailor Meijer Oudkerk and Dina van Praag and was also born in Amsterdam on 11 October 1913. Gerard earned his living as a carpet dealer and, according to his own statement to the Jewish Council during the mandatory registration in 1941, he had previously worked as an interior designer. He also completed a 4-year trade school.
In the first years of 1930, the Meijer Oudkerk family moved from Den Helder to Amsterdam and lived at Van Eeghenstraat 44. Meijer Oudkerk died there on 15 December 1935, aged 62. Gerard then lived with his mother at various addresses in Amsterdam-South, such as Nicolaas Maesstraat, Amsteldijk, Johannes Verhulststraat and finally from 9 May 1939 in PC, Hooftstraat 100, where they lived with Maurits Baars and his wife.
After his registration with the Jewish Council, Gerard Oudkerk was given a position in "Retirement House Van Eeghenstraat 44" where he was appointed for general housework and care of the sick, but on 1 July 1942 he became a Vegetable Distribution employee, for which he obtained identification number 618 from the Jewish Council and as a result of which he was provisionally exempted from deportation. Until then, Gerard was still unmarried until he married his distant cousin Henriette Cato Oudkerk on 21 April 1943.
Both Gerard and Henriette Cato had Sperre numbers between 80000 and 100000, which were the actual Jewish Council stamps. They both belonged to the Jewish Council employees who, according to Aus der Fünten, were still necessary to keep a minimal Jewish Council running after the massive roundup of 20 June 1943, in which more than 5500 Jewish residents of Amsterdam were deported. Both were part of the 170 Jewish Council employees who received a so-called “Ausnahme Bescheinigung 170”, the very last and ultimate exemption from deportation.
However, on 14 August 1943, the young Oudkerk-Oudkerk couple were arrested and deported to Westerbork, where they ended up in barrack 61 and were deported to Auschwitz on 24 August.
Post-war research by the Red Cross showed that the general rule also applied to this transport, that young children up to the age of 15, mothers with children, pregnant women, as well as weak, sick and elderly persons, were generally over ± 50 years of age, either were killed by gassing immediately upon arrival at Auschwitz, or after a stay of several weeks in so-called "quarantine".
On the other hand, it also turned out that the vast majority of men from the transport of 24 August 1943, after selection upon arrival in Auschwitz, were transferred to Monowitz-Buna; the remaining women were almost all intended for experiments.
From that investigation it can be deduced that Gerard Oudkerk was put to work in Monowitz and was given the prisoner number 139818, and that Henriette Cato Oudkerk was selected for “medical” experiments. Also read:
After the war, the Dutch Authorities adopted the conclusions from the Red Cross investigations, which showed (as also noted on his registration card of the Jewish Council),that Gerard Oudkerk was admitted to the "Krankenbau" (prisoners hospital) of Monowitz-Buna on 10 October 1943,was discharged again on 9 November 1943, but was subsequently admitted to the Krankenbau again on 2 December 1943, but was discharged again on 5 December 1943.
The authorities later established that Gerard Oudkerk died in the vicinity of Auschwitz on 8 January 1944. The municipality of Amsterdam was then instructed to draw up a death certificate for him, which stated that he died on 8 January 1944 in the vicinity of Auschwitz.
The general conclusion from that post-war investigation by the Red Cross regarding women who were included in the so-called "experiment blocks" to undergo "medical" experiments is that in a number of cases individual determination of death was not possible.
The only thing that can be established with sufficient certainty about these women is that they were no longer alive at the time of the great evacuation of 18 January 1945, because it can be assumed that the names of all women who lived in November 1944 to Bergen Belsen, or went with the evacuation transport, as has become known from the statements of survivors.
With regard to this category, it can only be concluded that the women belonging to it died in Auschwitz or Birkenau, no earlier than the day after arrival in Auschwitz (3 days after departure from Westerbork), and no later than 18 January 1945 (date of the evacuation).
After the war, the Dutch Authorities also adopted this conclusion from the Red Cross investigation, after which the municipality of Amsterdam was instructed to also draw up a death certificate for Henriette Cato Oudkerk-Oudkerk, which records that she has died in the vicinity of Auschwitz on 18 January 1945.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Heiman Oudkerk; archive cards of Gerard Oudkerk and Henriette Cato Oudkerk; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Henriette Cato Oudkerk-Oudkerk and Gerard Oudkerk; residence cards Amsterdam for Gerard Oudkerk/Amsteldijk 16 and P.C. Hooftstraat 100; death certificates for Gerard Oudkerk nr. 31 dated 30 October 1953 from the A-register 102-folio 7 and for Henriette Cato Oudkerk-Oudkerk nr. 21 dated 29 January 1954 from the A-register 103-folio 5; the archives of the Red Cross, publication Auschwitz IV edited October 1943/transport 24 August 1943 and sub I of page 43, pages 44, 45, 46, 47, and 49 the summary conclusions of pages 65, 66 and 67 and from Auschwitz VI/evacuation-transport 18 January 1945 (page 7 a.f.); website ITS Arolson/lists murdered with Gerard Oudkerk and Henriette Oudkerk-Oudkerk; website Jodentransporten from Nederland.nl/ transport 24 August 1943.