Abraham Stokvisch, who was born on 28 August 1868 in Amsterdam, was a son of Jacob Nathan Stokvisch and Mietje Jacob Italiaander. Abraham was the eldest; he had a sister Sara in 1872 and a sister Mietje in 1875.
Abraham earned his living as a casual laborer, as a disc sander and as a diamond cutter. On 8 May 1889 he married Sara Waas, a daughter of Simon Waas and Roosje Groen, in Amsterdam. Sara was also born there on 27 August 1867. Abraham and Sara had five children, namely: Marianne in 1892, Roosje in 1893, Rachel in 1895, Jacob in 1898 and Simon, the youngest, on 7 November 1907.
Until his departure for Antwerp on 21 June 1895, Abraham Stokvisch lived with his family in Amsterdam at the Rapenburgerstraat and on the Nieuwe Achtergracht. In Antwerp he stayed at Pelikaanstraat 120. His wife Sara followed in September 1895 with their three Amsterdam-born daughters Marianne, Roosje and Rachel and the family then lived at Van Spangenstraat 21 in Antwerp. On 15 September 1903, Sara returned to Amsterdam with her three daughters and her son Jacob, newly born in Antwerp on 16 June 1898, and then lived in the Joden Houttuinen 59.
Two months later, on 18 November 1903, the entire family left again for Antwerp, where their son Simon was born in Borgerhout on 7 November 1907. The family then lived there at Ketstraat 87 in Borgerhout. A few years after Simon's birth, the family left for Raht near Düsseldorf (Germany), from where they returned to Amsterdam in September 1916, to move again to Antwerp three years later, on 9 May1919. Abraham Stokvisch then became a member of the ADB, the Belgian Diamond Workers' Union, on 1 July 1922 and lived then at Borgerhoutsestraat 72.
Of the five children of Abraham and Sara, Marianne married the non-Jewish Petrus van Loon in 1911 and Roosje married the non-Jewish Ludovicus Franciscus Denaeijer in 1915. They survived the war with their families.
Daughter Rachel, who married David Beesemer in 1915, was murdered with her husband and five of the six children in Sobibor and Auschwitz during the Shoah. Only Sara Beesmer survived the Shoah with her husband and children.
Son Jacob married Grietje Boas in 1924 and both were murdered in Auschwitz with their four children.
Son Simon married Saartje Kroet in 1931 and had three children, but they were all murdered during the Holocaust; Simon in somewhere in Central Europe, the other family members in Sobibor.
When the formation of the 12th convoy for deportation from Mechelen to Auschwitz started on 26 September 1942, Abraham Stokvisch and his wife Sara Waas were also arrested and transferred to the Kazerne Dossin collection camp in Mechelen, awaiting deportation. At the same time the 13th convoy was formed and both transports left Mechelen for Auschwitz on October 10 and arrived in Auschwitz on 12 October 1942.
Based on Abraham's age of 74 years and Sara's age of 75, employment was no option and both were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau upon arrival. The date of death of 13 October 1942 for Abraham Stokvisch corresponds to the date of arrival in Auschwitz on the 12th. That of Sara Waas, which is listed as 10 October 1942 on the Jewish Monument, corresponds to the date of departure from Mechelen. Another official document with a date of death after arrival in Auschwitz is missing.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, closed down family registration cards of Abraham Stokvisch; the Felix Archive of Antwerp/ Dossiers of Foreigners Borgerhout 457 and 1785 with Abraham Stokvisch; membership card of the ADB for Abraham Stokvisch and the Memorial of the Deportation of the Belgian Jews/Convoy 12.