Already within one year after the marriage of his parents in Hilversum, Jacob Philip Peper was born on 25 July 1897 in Antwerp. He married Kaatje Boekman in Amsterdam on 18 June 1925, a daughter of the bookseller Barend Boekman and Hendrina Lenson. The couple had two children, namely Hendrina Eva Philip in 1928 and Eleonora Marion Philip in 1930.
Jacob Philip Peper worked still as a chemist at a laboratory in Dutch East Indies (see photo), but he and his family returned from Buitenzorg in Holland and they lived then at Rotterdamseweg 168 in Delft, where Jacob Philip worked as chemist in public service. . On 29 April 193 they moved to Binckhorststraat 130 in Den Haag where they stayed only six months but since 25 November 1935, their residence became Amsterdam again, among others at Laplacestraat 89 down floor, Kribbestraat 36 down floor and per 4 June 1943 Afrikanerplein 38 down floor.
On 3 October 1942 the Peper family received this call to go to Westerbork. Kaatje Boekman, Jacob Philip’s spouse, was active in the clothing industry and she had a “sperre” since 28 September 1942, (exempted from deportation until further notice) but according other data from her registration card of the Jewish Council, she stayed already “temporarily” in Camp Westerbork since 8 October 1942, where she held the position of deputy leader of the quarantine barack 36. Because of that, the whole family was “gesperrt because of function spouse”.
At some point Jacob Philip and both his daughters had to report in the Hollandse Schouwburg but they have been released from there on 6 March 1943. (sind entlassen). However, in the greatest secrecy the Germans were preparing a raid , which should take place on Sunday 20 June 1943. Even the Jewish Council was not informed. “A rest of Jews of the South and East of Amsterdam should be made “ready to march” (“marschfertig”). The consequence of this was that those, who were fetched from their homes, were completely taken by surprise. That Sunday, directives were that “all Jews were to arrest (“erfassen”),they should be collected and taken to railway station Muiderpoort, for which they brought in OD-guards from Westerbork. At the Muiderpoort station heartbreaking situations occurred but all requests for exemptions were declined. That 20th of June 1943 more than 5550 Jews have been “erfasst” and made “marschfertig” during that “Grossaktion”(raid) and were carried off to Camp Westerbork to be registered and deported to the East.
On the registration cards of Jacob Philip Peper and both his children is listed: “20 June 1943 again in Westerbork”. They had to stay in barack 72 and they were deported all on 31 August 1943 to Auschwitz and upon arrival there Kaatje and her two daughters were immediately killed on 3 September 1943. But Jacob Philip Peper had to endure another seven months in Auschwitz, before he was killed there on 31 March 1944.
Sources among others: City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Jacob Philip Peper; Municipal Archive of Den Haag; Peoples Registry of Delft, family registration card of Jacob Philip Peper; website www.wiewaswie.nl, the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registrion cards of the families Frank, Van Rood and Peper and passages from the book "Ondergang" by Dr. J. Presser, Volume 1, 1965, pages 367-387.