Esther Salomons was the eldest of the seven children of Simon Salomons and Sprins Wagenaar. She was born in Amsterdam on 14 July 1888 and married on 3 September 1913 in Amsterdam to Joseph Drukker, who was born on 24 June 1891 in Amsterdam as the son of Samuel Drukker and Regina Bleekroode. After Esther and Joseph were married, they lived at Kerkstraat 346 and moved to Nieuwe Kerkstraat 113 in 1894.
From December 1916, Joseph Drukker lived with his wife Esther Salomons at Commelinstraat 13 3rd floor in Amsterdam's Dapper-neighbourhood. Joseph was installed in 1916 as cantor in the chewre-shul Bene Berith Bebeth Ja-acob, (a small society synagogue), located at no. 124. He remained there until 1919, as he then left for the Uilenburger synagogue, where he was cantor from 1919 to 1928. He became Shochet - ritual slaughterer - in the Main Synagogue from 1928 to 1938.
However, the childless marriage of Esther and Joseph did not last and was dissolved on 27 February 1924. After the divorce, Esther left for Enschede, after having stayed shortly with her parents, but returned to Amsterdam on 6 November 1925, where she found living space with Isaak Slosser at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 45, but from there she left again for Oldenzaalseweg 46 in Enschede on 7 September 1927.
From Enschede she left for the “Bergstichting” in Laren on 1 July 1929, returned to Amsterdam on 27 April 1930 and found accommodation at Drukker’s at President Steijnstraat 7. From there she left for The Hague and found living space there on 30 May 1931 in Molenstraat. 47. Until mid-July 1939 she stayed in The Hague at 4 different addresses and supported herself as a lingerie dealer.
On her 51st birthday, on 14 July 1939, she returned to Amsterdam and stayed at Weesperplein 1, in the “Joodsche Invalide”. She then moved on 9 June 1941 to 2e Boerhaavestraat 69 2nd level and on 20 November 1942 to Plantage Parklaan 8, 2nd floor, in one of those large buildings in that avenue where several of them were retirement homes.
On 3 December 1942, Esther Salomons was taken to Westerbork. Notes on her registration card from the Jewish Council show that she was ill and was still in the hospital on 7 December. Nevertheless, on 8 December 1942, she was deported to Auschwitz with 926 other deportees and upon arrival there on 11 December 1942, she was immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Simon Salomons (1855), Samuel Drukker (1859), Esther Salomons (1888) and Joseph Drukker (1891); archive cards of Esther Salomons and Joseph Drukker; Amsterdam residence cards of Nieuwe Keizersgracht 45, Nieuwe Kerkstraat 113 and Plantage Parklaan 8; Municipal Archive of Den Haag/family registration card of Esther Salomons; the file cabinet of the Jewish Coundil, registration cards of Esther Salomons and the website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/ transport 8 December 1942.