Arnold van Praag, born in Amsterdam on 31 August 1900 as the son of Samuel van Praag and Sellie Koster, was a theology student of the Dutch Israelitic Seminary. In 1919, 1920 and 1921 he was called up for the selection board of the National Militia but was always exempted for a year by the Provincial Executive of North Holland as a student of theology. In June 1929, on the basis of his spiritual office, he was permanently exempted from the Militia by the Ministry of Defence. After graduating from the Seminary, he obtained the diploma and theological degree of “Maggied” (preacher) and speech teacher.
Arnold van Praag married Henriette Oudkerk on 16 December 1931 in Amsterdam, who was born in Amsterdam on 18 September 1902 as the daughter of Hijman Oudkerk and Rosette Franken. Henriette lived with her parents in the Van der Helststraat 21g but later they moved to the Sarphatiepark 7 ground floor. After the marriage, the Van Praag-Oudkerk couple went to live in the upper house at Valeriusstraat 58, where their son Samuel Herman Robert van Praag was born on 5 September 1934.
At the time of the compulsory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands with the Jewish Council of Amsterdam, which was established in February 1941, Arnold van Praag, his wife and son were on 31 July 1942 already “zurückgestellt - deferred from deportation”. And when he was registered by the Jewish Council, he was officially “exempted from deportation because of function”: he had been a teacher and reader since 1 January 1927 at the N.I.H.S. (Dutch Israelite Main Synagogue) on the Houtmarkt (before the war Jonas Daniel Meijerplein), a teacher at the Seminary of the N.I.H.S. in the Rapenburgerstraat 159, member of the Pastoral Commission of the Rabbinate, department South, and religious teacher at the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb at the Hortusplantsoen, for which he received the Jewish Council I.D.’s numbered JR-256 and JR-21.
As a result of Arnold's "Sperre", his wife Henriette and son Samuel were also exempted from deportation (bis auf weiteres – until further notice). Before the war, Henriette was a seamstress and had obtained her 3-year HBS school diploma. After registering with the Jewish Council, it was noted on her registration card that she worked as a volunteer caregiver for the poor at the Municipal Office of Social Affairs at the Houtmarkt 10, for which she received identification C-2153 from the Council. The then 6-year-old son Samuel Herman Robert van Praag was officially exempted "because of child".
On 6 July 1943, Henriette van Praag-Oudkerk and her son Samuel Herman Robert were taken from their home and carried off to Westerbork. There upon arrival they were housed in barrack 57. Henriette's husband and father of Samuel, Arnold van Praag followed 4 days later and after arriving on 10 July he was housed in Westerbork in barrack 97, which was known as "school".
On 13 July however the Van Praag family was deported to Sobibor; the deportation train contained a total of 1988 victims, all of whom were murdered in the gas chambers immediately upon arrival on 16 July 1943, including the 42-year-old Arnold van Praag, the 40-year-old Henriette van Praag-Oudkerk and the 8-year-old Samuel Herman Robert van Praag.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family card Hijman Oudkerk (1870), archive cards of Henriette Oudkerk, Arnold van Praag and Samuel Herman Robert van Praag; the Amsterdam Militia register with Arnold van Praag; the archive of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Arnold van Praag, Henriette van Praag-Oudkerk and Samuel Herman Robert van Praag and the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/transport 13 July 1943