Hijman Oudkerk, born on 16 July 1870 in Den Helder, was a son of Gerrit Oudkerk and Henriette Jacobson. Like his father who was a slaughterer, Hijman also worked in the slaughterhouse and became a butcher by profession. He moved in June 1875 with his parents from Den Helder to Amsterdam, where they came to live at Zeedijk 67. Ten years later, in June 1885 after having moved, the Oudkerk family lived at Warmoesstraat 103 in Amsterdam.
On 13 February 1895 Hijman married Rosette Franken in Arnhem, who was born there on 6 June 1871, as a daughter of Mauritz Franken and Elisabeth Cohen. After the marriage the couple moved to 1e Van der Helststraat 35 ground floor in Amsterdam, where Hijman started a slaughterhouse. However, they themselves lived at Van der Helststraat 21g, where also their three children were born, namely Gerrit on 13 June 1897, Maurits on 28 November 1900 and Henriette on 18 September 1902. Later Gerrit and Maurits followed their father in the trade and became butchers too.
At the end of November 1923 the family of Hijman Oudkerk moved to the Sarphatipark 7 ground floor. But in the course of time their children left the parental home: Gerrit left in May 1928 and found living space in the Sarphatistraat 60, married Hendrika Voet in December 1928 and moved to Euterpestraat 69 in 1929; Maurits went to live at Zuider Amstellaan 187 in October 1936, when he married Sara Oostra, and after her marriage to Arnold van Praag on 16 December 1931, who had become a religious teacher in the meantime, Henriette moved in with him; they lived in the upper house of Valeriusstraat 58.
Hijman and Rosette still lived at the Sarphatipark, but a week after the outbreak of the Second World War they also moved and on 17 May 1940 moved in with their daughter Henriette and her husband Arnold van Praag in the upper house at Valeriusstraat 58, where their son Samuel Robert Herman van Praag also lived since his birth on 5 September 1934. But soon after Hijman and Rosette had moved, Rosette Franken died there on 22 July 1940, aged 69. Two days later she was interred in the Jewish Cemetery at Muiderberg.
Three years after the death of Rosette Franken, Hijman Oudkerk was arrested by the Germans and taken to Westerbork, where he was housed in barrack 62 on 6 March 1943. On 10 March Hijman was deported to Sobibor, the 2nd transport there to, with a total of 1105 victims. This also was the last transport with passenger wagons "to this destination". The following transports were carried out with cattle- or freight wagons.
Upon arrival of this transport, several dozen people were selected for work in Sobibor and in labor camps in the Lublin district. Thirteen women survived the war. Signs of life were received from fourteen others from Lublin and two from Silesia. However, with the many others, Hijman Oudkerk was murdered immediately after arrival in the gas chambers of Sobibor on 13 March 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, Population Register Zeedijk 67 with Gerrit Oudkerk 1844; Closed family registration cards/Gerrit Oudkerk 1844/Warmoesstraat 103; Birth certificates of Gerrit, Maurits and Henriette Oudkerk, resp. deed 7004 from 1897/6-184v, 1900/13684 from 12-141 and 1902/11125 from 9-128; family registration cards of Hijman Oudkerk, Gerrit and Maurits Oudkerk; archive cards of Hijman Oudkerk and Rosette Franken, of Gerrit, Maurits and Henriette Oudkerk and Arnold van Praag; Amsterdam residence card/1e v.d. Helststraat 35 with Hijman Oudkerk; Militia Registers Amsterdam/ Arnold van Praag; website stenenarchief.nl/ Rosette Franken/record 34745; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Hijman Oudkerk; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/transport 10 March 1943 and the transport list of 10 March 1943 as published in the book “Extermination Camp Sobibor” by Jules Schelvis, 2nd edition 1994.