Tobias Sprecher, also known as Theodor, was born in Sanok in Poland, where he was given the surname of his mother at birth, due to an administrative complication in the Polish Civil Registry, while his mother was married to a “Hirschmann”. Tobias was married to Cipra or Cilly Redner, who was born in Kniazdwor, a small place in the Ukraine, near the village of Kolomyia. From the Ducth archives, it is not clear where Tobias and Cilly were married, but in 1915 they lived in Dortmund in Germany, where their first born son Isidor Sprechter was born on 16 October.
Tobias Sprecher served in the German Army during the Great War. He had an office job, but at some point he was warned that he would be transferred to the trenches at the front. Then he was still able to send his wife Cilly with baby Isidor to the Netherlands, “zur Erholung” (for rest and/or recuperation), because that possibility still existed. Tobias followed them later; he deserted the German Army and managed to reach Holland still before the end of the war.
Despite that the Sprecher family started living unregistered in Scheveningen where they stayed for some time, they were only officially registered in the Peoples Registry of Den Haag on 5 June 1920 at the address Hemsterhuisstraat 199. There their second son Jozef (Joop) Sprecher was born on 26 February 1920. Thereafter they moved a few times more: in 1924 to Witte de Withstraat 20 and in 1926 to Piet Heinstraat 68. In 1933 they moved again to the no’s 27 and 29 in the same street.
Tobias Sprecher was a merchant and retailer in men’s clothing and owner of “Maison Sprecher”, a shop for 1st class gent’s clothing in the Witte de Withstraat 20 in Den Haag. After the removal to Piet Heinstraat, he opened there again a men’s clothing store. The Sprecher family received the Dutch Nationality by the law of 16 March 1932, which was also proclaimed in the Official Gazette of State no. 90 in Den Haag and they received their Dutch passports in June 1940.
On 14 July 1944, Tobias Sprecher and his wife Cipra Redner were betrayed during their hiding in Den Haag, arrested there and carried off to Westerbork, were Tobias ended up in the penal barrack 67. Both their sons however, who were gone into hiding too, survived the Holocaust.
Tobias and Cipra were deported to Auschwitz with the last transport from Westerbork on 3 September 1944. In the official certificate of death for Cipra Redner, which has been drawn up after the war in Den Haag, is established that she has died on 6 September 1944 in the surrounding of Auschwitz. The exact place is not known, reason why Auschwitz as her place of death is listed on Joods Monument. On the other hand, Tobias was allowed in the camp and registered as prisoner no. B-9304. Presumably, he has lost his life during one of the many death marches which took place since fall 1944 till April 1945.
The exacte date and place of Tobias’ death is unknown. Therefore the Ministry of Justice after the war ordered the Municipality of Den Haag to draw up a certificate of death for Tobias Sprecher, in which was established that he has died on 4 February 1945 in Mid-Europe.
Sources include the Municipal Archive of Den Haag, family registration card of Tobias Sprecher; Wikipedia websites for Sanok, Kniadzwor, Kolomyia, Dodenmars, Tweede Wereldoorlog (death march, WWII); wikipediawebsite Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl; death certificate B-1776 dated 29 Aug 1959 from Den Haag for Cipra Sprecher-Redner and the certificate of death B-1777 dated 29 Aug 1959 from Den Haag for Tobias Sprecher; website Auschwitz-Birkenau/Sprecher and additions of visitors of the website.
This biography was rewritten and updated on 1 April 2020