David van Stratum

David van Stratum, born 8 September 1918, was a son of Mozes van Stratum and Engeltje Simmeren. He was unmarried and worked as presser in the clothing industry in Groningen. With his parents and elder sister he lived at Winschoterdiep 25 in Groningen City.

Early October 1942, the Germans held large-scaled round-ups on Jews, also in Groningen, whereby David van Stratum, his parents Mozes van Stratu…

David van Stratum died on 15 December 1942 in Reichsautobahnlager Annaberg, Upper Silesia, Germany (today Poland).

The official cause of death: body decay (allgemeine Körperverfall).

Source: the official death certificate issued by German authorities (Standesamt).

In addition, Jokos files (numbers 60518, 54275) on this family or other family members are at the Amsterdam Municipal Archive. Access is subject to authorization from the Stichting Joods Maatschappelijk Werk.The Jokos files reveal that a claim was lodged for compensation for valuables surrendered to the Lippmann-Rosenthal looting bank (L-claim, number 11646/15956).

Research into the wartime civil registries of one of the civil registry offices in Upper Silesias (Poland) discovered many records that corresponded to deaths of inmates from the "Reichsautobahnlager Annaburg" and "Zwangsarbeitslager Niederkirch" camps.

A certificate of death for David van Stratum as discovered there, stated that he died on 15 December 1942  in Camp Annaberg. In it was mentioned a…

The period from 28 August to 12 December 1942 was known as the so-called Cosel period. Deportation trains  made a stopover at the freight station of Cosel, located 80 km west of Auschwitz. During that stop, boys and men who were considered fit for work by the Germans, were usually forcibly separated from their families and taken off the train and put to work in the surrounding labor camps of Upper…