Biography

About Iwan Illfelder

Iwan Illfelder, born in Iserlohn (Germany) came from Cologne to The Netherlands and was registered on 4 July 1933 in the Peoples Registry of Amsterdam. He resided since then at various addresses in the city. On 15 August 1934 he married there Hilde Rosendahl, a daughter of Max Rosendahl and Emma Henriette Kussel, who passed away alreay 12 May 1917 in Odenkirchen (Germany).

Iwan’s wife Hilde, resided already four years in Amsterdam, when her family in 1938 (her father Max and his 2nd wife Julie Stern and brother Erich) also came to Amsterdam were they were registered at the address Onbekendegracht 9 II. On 29 July 1938 Iwan and his wife Hilde went there too to live in there. Hilde’s younger brother Erich, child from the 2nd marriage of her father, was housed in February 1940 in the so called Lloyds Hotel at Oostelijke Handelskade 12 in Amsterdam, a reception centre for German refugee children but he was transferred from there to refugee camp Westerbork in July 1940.

Iwan Illfelder and his wife Hilde moved with the Rosendahl family on 29 July 1939 to Zwanenburgwal 34 I in Amsterdam but eventually they were killed by the nazis at different dates: Iwan Illfelder was arrested in France on 15 May 1940 and was put in prison in camp St. Cyprien and later in Drancy, from where he has been deported to Auschwitz on 17 August 1942, where he was killed upon arrival on 20 August 1942, while his wife Hilde, was killed in Auschwitz more than one year later, on 30 November 1943.

City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Iwan Illfelder, Hilde Rosendahl, Max Rosendahl, Erich Rosendahl, websites www.dokin.nl and Memorial Book of the Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933-1945.