Simon Stokvisch, the youngest of the five children of Abraham Stokvisch and Sara Waas, was born in Borgerhout (Antwerp) on 7 November 1907 and became a diamond worker by profession and later a driver. From June 1895 his parents had already left for Antwerp, but at some point they left for Düsseldorf-Rath.
On 18 September 1916, the Stokvisch family returned from Düsseldorf-Rath back in Amsterdam, lived there among others briefly at Muiderstraat and Rapenburgerstraat but left again for Antwerp in June 1919. Only Simon's brother Jacob had already left Amsterdam for Antwerp in 1917. Jacob had been a member of the Dutch Diamond Workers Union, the ANDB, since April 1919, but was cancelled as a member in May 1919 because of “not making himself heard”.
Simon also lived in Antwerp and had been already a member since 1926 of the ADB in Belgium, the General Diamond Workers' Union, He married his first cousin and knitter, Saartje Kroet on 12 August 1931 in Amsterdam. Saartje was born on 31 July 1911 in Amsterdam as a daughter of Hartog Kroet and Mietje Stokvisch. After the wedding the couple settled in Borgerhout (Antwerp) at Ketstraat 87 on 29 August 1931.
Simon and Saartje had three children in Borgerhout, namely: Mina on 7 February 1935, Abraham Albert on 15 September 1937 and Judith was born on 30 March 1940. In November 1939, Simon left for Amsterdam to look for housing for his family. His wife Saartje stayed pregnant behind in Borgerhout with her 2 children, but when the 3rd child was born at the end of March 1940, she also left for Amsterdam, now with her 3 children.
At first, the entire family of Simon Stokvisch found living space with Saartje's parents, Hartog Kroet and his wife Mietje Stokvisch at Reitzstraat 2 ground-floor in Amsterdam-East, where they were registered on 8 June 1940. But after more than 2 weeks they left and moved to Louis Bothastraat 14 and on 20 September 1940 they were registered at Jodenbreestraatr 44 3rd level, which became also their last known address in the Netherlands.
After the family was registered with the Jewish Council in 1941, Simon Stokvisch was carried off to Westerbork in early October 1942, but not Saartje Stokvisch-Kroet and her children Mina, Abraham Albert and Judith. They were only arrested and deported on the night of 4 to 5 March 1943 to Vught concentration camp. They stayed there until 23 May and were then sent back to Westerbork, from where they had to wait for their deportation in barrack 60. This followed on 25 May to Sobibor, in a transport of a total of 2862 victims.
Upon arrival in Sobibor on 28 May 1943, all, including Saartje Stokvisch-Kroet, her 8-year-old daughter Mina, her 5-year-old son Abraham Albert and her 3-year-old daughter Judith, were murdered immediately in the gas chambers there. There were no survivors from this transport.
Simon Stokvis, on the other hand, was registered in Westerbork already on 8 October 1942 and deported to Auschwitz on 23 October. Simon was among the 170 men who were forcedly taken off the train at the stopover in Cosel - ±80 km west of Auschwitz - to be employed as forced laborers in the surrounding labor camps in Upper Silesia. Those who remained on the train were transported further to Auschwitz and generally murdered immediately upon arrival.
Simon Stokvis and the group of 170 boys and men between the ages of 15 and 50 were first transferred to St. Annaberg and then the group was divided among various camps including Niederkirch, Sakrau, Eichtal, Ottmuth, Klein Mangersdorf, Königshütte, and Johannsdorf, and finally to Blechhammer or the Gross Rosen Ressort but some were still sent to Bismarckhütte and Auschwitz.
It is not known exactly where Simon Stokvis eventually ended up. Post-war research by the Red Cross concluded that the men who disembarked in Cosel, unless it appears otherwise in individual cases, and taking into account the general conclusions stated, the men who disembarked in Cosel should be considered to have died. after 26 October 1942, but no later than 31 March 1944 in one of the labor camps in Silesia.
The Dutch Authorities adopted these conclusions and the Ministry of Justice subsequently instructed the municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate for Simon Stokvis, in which it was established that he died on 31 March 1944 in Mid-Europe.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Hartog Kroet (1881); closed down family registration cards of Abraham Stokvisch (1868); archive cards of Simon Stokvisch, Saartje Kroet and of Mina, Abraham Albert and Judith Stokvisch; Amsterdam residence cards of Louis Bothastraat 14 and Reitzstraat 2; ADB-membership card of Simon Stokvisch; the filce cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Simon Stokvisch, Saartje Stokvisch-Kroet and of Mina, Abraham Albert and Judith Stokvisch; website ITS Arolson/camp cards Vught of Saartje Stokvisch-Kroet and Mina, Abraham Albert and Judith Stokvisch; the archives of the Red Cross, publication from October 1952 "Auschwitz III", deportation transports in the Cosel-period; website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland/23 Oct 1942 and 25 Mei 1943 and the death certificate nr.78 dated 8 February 1952 from the A-register 94-folio 14-verso for Simon Stokvisch.