On 13 June 1897, Gerrit Oudkerk was born in Amsterdam as the first of the 3 children of Hijman Oudkerk (1870-1943) and Rosette Franken (1871-1940). His father was a butcher and meat cutter, and the slaughterhouse was located on the ground floor of Van der Helststraat 35. Gerrit's parents lived at house number 21g, where Gerrit, and later his brother Maurits and sister Henriette, were born.
In his younger years, Gerrit, like his brother Maurits, followed his father's trade and both became butchers. But when Gerrit married Hendrika Voet in Amsterdam on 19 December 1928, a daughter of Andries Voet and Betje Vredenburg, he had said “goodbye” to the butcher's trade and was already earning his living as a stockbroker and later as a bank employee.
Apart from that, his wife Hendrika was married before: on 7 August 1919 she was married to Mauritz van der Laan, who was born in Amsterdam on 3 March 1895 as the son of Jozef van der Laan and Grietje Franken, but from whom Hendrika was divorced on 8 February 1929. From that wedlock, two children were born in Amsterdam, namely: Josephine Elisabeth on 3 July 1920, and Eliza on 30 November 1923.
Both daughters Josephine and Eliza were assigned to their mother after the divorce, and from the second marriage of their mother Hendrika to Gerrit Oudkerk, another son was born on 16 October 1931, named Henk Gerard Oudkerk.
For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned here that Mauritz van der Laan remarried Marianne Smit in 1938, that Mauritz died in Medemblik on 27 January 1941, that Marianne Smit remarried Heinrich Hirschfeld on 18 April 1946, but that from the marriages of Mauritz with Marianne and that of Marianne with Heinrich in 1946, no more children were born.
Even before Gerrit married, he no longer lived at home but at Sarphatistraat 60. After he married Hendrika Voet on 19 December 1928, they moved into living space at Euterpestraat 69 II. Gerrit and Hendrika's family actually consisted already of 4 people, namely: Gerrit, Hendrika and her two daughters Josephine and Eliza van der Laan from her first marriage.
But before their son Henk Gerard was born on 16 October 1931, the Van der Laan girls were accomodated elsewhere on 14 May 1929: Josephine went to Hendrika's brother Herman Isidore Voet and Eliza was given shelter with Emanuel Cohen, the husband of Hendrika's sister Sara Voet.
In March 1934, the entire Oudkerk family moved to Wilhelminaweg 7 in Zandvoort. In 1942, the street name was compulsorily changed to Van Haemstedeweg 7 (no more streets were allowed to be named after Jews or members of the Royal family). But due to the German regulation that all Jews were obliged to live in Amsterdam, the family could not stay longer in Zandvoort. (see also the website “joodsmonumentzandvoort.com”, (“German sympathies” and “The end of Jewish Zandvoort” – only Dutch language).
Gerrit Oudkerk then moved from Zandvoort to Amsterdam on 15 June 1942, where he found room in Pension Wien in Rubensstraat 60, which was managed by the 67-year-old widow of Jakob Schimmerling, Käthe Grätzer, who herself lived on the 1st floor. First on his own, then Hendrika followed with Eliza and Josephine and Henk Gerard, who, however, had moved into living space on the 2nd floor of house number 80 in the Waalstraat in Amsterdam-Zuid on 3 March 1943, after which Gerrit Oudkerk also came to live there at some point.
On 23 September 1943, the entire family was arrested and taken to Westerbork. It can be deduced from Gerrit Oudkerk's registration card of the Jewish Council that he was locked up in penal barrack 67 in Westerbork, but it is not known where the other family members were housed. It is also not known why Gerrit was locked up in the penal barracks.
The family stayed in Westerbork from 23 September 1943 until mid-January 1944, because they were not deported to Auschwitz until 25 January 1944. The deportation train contained 949 victims, of which 81 "sick" who were transported in a separate wagon, were gassed immediately after arrival on 28 January 1944. Women who had children under the age of 15 with them were also gassed immediately.
For the remainder, a selection for employment followed after arrival. Although the Germans had roughly determined the age group from 15 to 50 years, 46-year-old Gerrit was not selected for work. Together with his 53-year-old wife Hendrika Oudkerk-Voet, as well as their children Josephine Elisabeth van der Laan (23 years) and her sister Eliza van der Laan (20 years) and 12-year-old Henk Gerard Oudkerk, Gerrit Oudkerk has been murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau immediately after arriving at 28 January 1944.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Hijman Oudkerk (1870) Gerrit Oudkerk and Hendrika Voet; archive cards of Gerrit Oudkerk, Hendrika Voet, Henk Gerard Oudkerk and Josephine Elizabeth and Eliza van der Laan; wedding certificate Amsterdam/ Gerrit Oudkerk x Hendrika Voet; Amsterdam residence cards/Rubensstraat 60 ground floor and Waalstraat 80 2nd stock; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Gerrit Oudkerk, Hendrika Oudkerk-Voet, Henk Gerard Oudkerk and Josephine Elizabeth and Eliza van der Laan; the archive of the Red Cross/transport list Amsterdam – Westerbork of 23 September 1943; the archive of the Red Cross/publication “Auschwitz V” edited December 1953/transport of 25 January 1944 and the Wikipedia website Jodenstransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/transport 25 January 1944.