Frederika Jegeva Oudkerk was the only daughter from the first marriage of Izaäk Oudkerk and Aaltje Nijstat. She was born on 15 November 1913 at Ceintuurbaan 99, 2nd floor, in Amsterdam, where to her parents had moved at the end of August 1909, after getting married one month earlier.
After Frederika Jegeva was born, the family moved once more to Den Texstraat 10 in August 1922, but no more children were born: Frederika Jegeva remained an only child. Her mother, Aaltje Nijstat, died there on 10 June 1929 and on 12 June she was interred in the Jewish Cemetery at Muiderberg.
When her father became a widower, he was 51 years old, but he remarried at the age of only 58 to Margarethe Haas, aged 31, from Kirchlinde, a district in the German city of Dortmund. She was born on 14 December 1905 as daughter of Hermann Haas and Johanna Seligmann. Her marriage to Izaäk Oudkerk was concluded on 26 August 1937 in Amsterdam.
From the Den Texstraat, her father and Frederika had moved again in 1934 to the Zuider Amstellaan (now called Rooseveltlaan) and in 1935 to the Roerstraat, where Frederika decided on 24 January 1938 to go to live on her own; she then left for an upstairs house at Breughelstraat 4.
Frederika Jegeva had now come into contact with the office clerk Michiel van Blijdenstein, who was born in Zaltbommel on 5 February 1896 as the son of Emanuel van Bledenstein and Ida Wihl. He arrived in Amsterdam from Cologne in the summer of 1935 and stayed there at Rokin 15.
The Population Register of Zaltbommel previously showed, that Michiel left Zaltbommel with his mother Ida Wihl for Ruhrort am Rhein on 21 June 1897, but without his father.… Nothing has been known any more about him so far. (source Open Archives).
After Michiel ended up on Rokin in Amsterdam, he too moved a few more times: on 18 July 1936 to the Vondelstraat 110 ground floor, on 12 July 1939 to Olympiaplein 164 2nd floor and on 12 October 1939 to the Catharina van Clevepark 85 in the municipality of Nieuwer Amstel (today named Amstelveen).
The day before, on 11 October 1939, Michiel van Blijdenstein married Frederika Jegeva Oudkerk, after which she moved in with Michiel at Nieuwer Amstel. On 31 December 1942 they moved again, this time to Michel Angelostraat 53 ground level.
Michiel van Blijdenstein was 17 years older than Frederika. He was born in 1896 and she in 1913. But Michiel was previously married to a certain Irmgard Gertrud Blumenberg on 24 December 1924 in Northeim (Germany), but on 14 June 1929 that marriage was dissolved by divorce in Cologne and in 1935 Michiel then left for Amsterdam. No children were born from Michiel van Blijdenstein's two marriages.
What exactly happened to Frederika and Michiel in 1942 and 1943 cannot be determined from their registration cards from the Jewish Council, except that on 28 August 1943 both were taken by penal transport from Arnhem to Westerbork were they were locked up in the penal barrack 67. This suggests that both attempted to avoid deportation by going into hiding, but this was not successful.
On 31 August 1943, Michiel and Frederika were deported to Auschwitz in a transport of 1004 people. Upon arrival on 2/3 September 1943, selections followed, after which most men deemed suitable for work were transferred to the Warsaw Ghetto to carry out rubble-clearing work and a number of women were put to work in Auswitz-Birkenau.
In general it has been stated that all men belonging to the transport of 31 August 1943 (and also those of September 7), who were 16 years of age on the day after their arrival at Auschwitz (i.e. on 2 September 1943). but were not yet 51 years old, are, unless individually known otherwise, deemed to have died in Warsaw no later than 31 March 1944.
However, 48-year-old Michiel van Blijdenstein was not sent to Warsaw but, as documents (Arolson) and his death certificate (Amsterdam City Archives) state, was put to work somewhere in Auschwitz and/or the surrounding area, where he also lost his life. However, it is not known where and when exactly he died there.
After the war, the Dutch Authorities, partly based on the many investigations by the Red Cross, determined that Michiel van Blijdenstein could no longer be alive after 31 March 1944. The Ministry of Justice has instructed the municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate for him, which states that he died on 31 March 1944 in the vicinity of Auschwitz.
In fact, nothing else is known about Michiel's wife, 29-year-old Frederika Jegeva van Blijdenstein-Oudkerk, other than that all women belonging to the transport of 31 August 1943, as well as the children, are, unless individually known otherwise, considered to have died in Birkenau on or about 3 September 1943
After the war, the Ministry of Justice also adopted this conclusion of the Red Cross and instructed the municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate for Frederika Jegeva van Blijdenstein-Oudkerk, which records that she died in the vicinity of Auschwitz on 3 September 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Izaäk Oudkerk and Michiel van Blijdenstein; archive cards of Michiel van Blijdenstein, Margarethe Haas, Izaäk Oudkerk and Frederika Jegeva Oudkerk; Amsterdam residence cards of Breughelstraat 4 upstair house with Frederika Jegeva Oudkerk; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Michiel van Blijdenstein and Frederika Jegeva van Blijdenstein-Oudkerk; the archives of the Red Cross/Publication "Auschwitz IV" edited October 1953/ deportation transports in 1943 to Auschwitz/autumn transports from 24 Augustus till 16 November 1943/pages 43, 44, 45, 51-52-53 and 67, the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl; death certificate 264 from A82-45v dated 19 Jul 1951 for Michiel van Blijdenstein and death certificate 229 fom A80-40 dated 29Jun 1951 for Jegeva van Blijdenstein-Oudkerk, both made out in Amsterdam.