Jogeva van Praag was the daughter of Hijman van Praag and Elsje Oudkerk. She was born on 6 September 1913 at Keizerstraat 76 in Den Helder, where her parents lived with her older brother Gerrit. Gerrit was born in June 1910. Not long before, in April 1910, his parents were married in den Helder, lived on the Spoorgracht but soon moved to the Keizerstraat. Another of Jogeva's brothers was also born there in 1915: Emanuel.
On 24 August 1937, Jogeva van Praag married her first cousin Gerrit van Praag - also called Gerard - in Den Helder, who was born on 21 September 1909 in Velsen. He was a son of the Den Helder shopkeeper and draper Meijer van Praag and Sara Frank. Before his marriage, Gerrit worked as a warehouse clerk, among others also in Rotterdam, where he lived from 20 January 1930 to 21 April 1932 at Hoogstraat 176a and Van der Werffstraat 67. He then left for Schaarbeek in Belgium.
Gerrit had started a men's fashion store at Kanaalstraat 63 in IJmuiden on 6 March 1937. "20% cheaper" was his slogan. (source: war victims IJmond - dutch language only). After the wedding, Gerrit and Jogeva also moved in there. Jogeva and Gerrit had two children: the first was Martijn Herman, who was born on 9 November 1941 in Velsen but who died 4 days later, on 13 November. Then, on 28 November 1942, they had a daughter, Elsje Sonja, who was born in Amsterdam and survived the Holocaust. (read more about Elsje Sonja van Praag in the last paragraph)
After the death of their first child, Jogeva and Gerrit were confronted with having to move. Based on a German regulation, all Jews from the provinces had to go to Amsterdam mandatory. They then both ended up in the Breughelstraat 4 ground floor in Amsterdam-South. Gerrits' father, Meijer van Praag, also came to live in there on 23 December 1943, and they were also registered at that address at the time of the mandatory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands with the Jewish Council.
Gerrit van Praag was “gesperrt because of function” by the Jewish Council. His wife Jogeva and their daughter Elsje were therefore also (temporarily) exempted from deportation. Gerrit was employed at the “Department Evacuation and Employment in Germany” at the Jewish Council at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 58. He was issued with an I.D. numbered JR 645-Evacuator and Leader of Employment in Germany. Another note on Gerrit's registration card from the Jewish Council indicated, that he was also headmaster of the primary school in Cliffordstraat in Amsterdam. That school was designated by the Germans in 1941 as Jewish School No. 14.
Coincidence or not, but on 1 October 1942, Gerrit van Praag and his brother-in-law Emanuel van Praag were arrested, together with a certain Isak Grunwald who was born in Den Helder but also lived in Amsterdam. They were “taken into custody” in Bureau 11, better known as the Jewish Affairs Office (Bureau Joodse Zaken), for arraignment before the S.D. It was possible that Gerrit had made plans to go into hiding, given a note on his Jewish Council card that indicates this, but was arrested possibly due to betrayal.
Both Gerrit and his brother-in-law Emanuel were sent from Amsterdam to Camp Amersfoort, from where they were sent to Westerbork in a group of 30 Jewish prisoners on 23 December 1942. There, Emanuel was admitted to sick bay in barrack 82, but after “healing”, he was confined to penal barrack 66. He was deported to Auschwitz on 29 January 1943. His precise date and place of death could not be determined, which is why the District Court of Alkmaar determined his date of death by means of a court order as "between 29 January 1943 and May 1945".
No further indications or notes were found for Gerrit van Praag on his Jewish Council card, which could indicate what happened to him after his arrival in Westerbork and where he was housed until his deportation. He was transported from Westerbork to Sobibor extermination camp on 17 March 1943 and murdered in the gas chambers upon arrival there on 20 March 1943.
After her husband's arrest, Gerrit's wife Jogeva van Praag moved to Jekerstraat 74 ground floor, where her unmarried brother-in-law Gerrit van Praag (born 1910) lived in with Isaac Nabarro. Jogeva worked as an Emergency Service Employee of the Home Care Department of the Jewish Council. But she too was arrested on 24 May 1943 and taken to Westerbork, where she had to await deportation in barrack 64. This followed on 1 June to Sobibor, where she was murdered in the gas chambers after her arrival on 4 June 1943.
Sources include the Regional Archive of Alkmaar/den Helder Poulation Register with Hijman van Praag and Meijer van Praag; website openarchieven.nl/wedding certificate Gerrit van Praag x Jogeva van Praag; the City Archive of Amsterdam/police register of 1 October 1942 with G. v. Praag, E. v. Praag and others; info from the former Camp Amersfoort; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Gerrit van Praag, Jogeva van Praag-van Praag and Elsje Sonja van Praag; death certificate 297 dated 9 December 1949 for Gerrit van Praag, made out in Velsen and the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.