Biography

About Sigfried Okker.

Sigfried Okker, born 5 April 1894 in Amsterdam, was a son of Jonas Okker and Henriette Gobes. His father passed away on 7 September 1926 and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery at Muiderberg. His mother then widowed, moved from Kazernestraat to Plantage Middenlaan, where she moved in with her brother Loudewijk Gobes.

As far as can be deduced from the archives, Sigfried would have been married 6 April 1926 in London with Harriet Edwards, born 14 June 1897 in London. Those days, Sigfried had no permanent address in Amsterdam and was officially unsubscribed in 1926 from the Population Registry in Amsterdam. However it appeared that he arrived from London in Amsterdam again on 7 April 1931 and then lived in Van Woustraat 207 in Amsterdam.

What also can be deduced from documents in the archives is that Harriet Edwards arrived from Brussels in Amsterdam on 15 September 1932 but she left some years later – as documents show – on 6 April 1936 for London again. Whether one could speak of a divorce is unknown.

At the time of the mandatory registration of the Jews in The Netherlands at the Jewish Council, Sigfried lived  in 1941 in Vrolikstraat 135 1st floor in Amsterdam. According to his registration card he was married and as his profession was taken down “representative” and “work provision laborer”

Sigfried was brought into Westerbork from Camp Amersfoort at the end of December 1942 and he was enclosed in penal barrack 66. On 14 January 1943, for unknown reasons he ended up in the camp hospital but despite of that, he was deported to Auschwitz on 18 January. On arrival there on 21 January 1943, Sigfried Okker has been immediately killed.

Sources among others: City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Sigfried Okker and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Sigfried Okker.

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