David Schnitzler, born on 3 December 1873 in Rotterdam, was a son of Samuel and Sara Schnitzler. He was born into a large family with in total seven children. They were Abraham, Rebecca, Keetje, Meijer, Anna, Maria and David self. His parents, Samuel and Sara Schnitzler were cousins 1st degree and were married in Rotterdam on 11 November 1866. They have died in Rotterdam, respectively in 1913 and 1918. David’s brother Meijer passed away yet before the war on 19 February 1938 in Rotterdam; his wife Sophia Schnitzler-Cohen passed already there on 2 March 1930. David was a tailor by profession.
It is known of David’s unmarried sister Maria Schnitzler, who worked as a factory worker, that she has given birth to a daughter named Sara Schnitzler on 24 February 1904, who later lived in Den Haag and was married to Eduard Maas. After being divorced from him, she married Jacob van Klaveren and when she also divorced him in December 1940, she married the 3rd time in Den Haag on 25 February 1942 Hubert Johan Hofkes from Maastricht.
On 6 December 1922 David Schnitzler married in Rotterdam Sara den Hartogh, a daughter of Lion den Hartogh and Feijtje van der Ster. She was previously married – and widowed since 1 March 1920 from Salomon Tokkie from Rotterdam. With Salomon, Sara den Hartogh had two children : Emanuel Tokkie, born in 1905 and Feijtje Tokkie in 1907. Emanuel Tokke was killed with wife and children in the Shoah: he in Mauthausen and the other family members in Auschwitz. Feijtje Tokkie married a non-Jewish man and she, her husband and son survived the war. David Schnitzler and Sara den Hartogh had no children together.
When David’s widowed mother Sara Schnitzler passed away in 1918, David was”appointed as head of family”. David then was still unmarried but when he got married himself on 6 December 1922, the other sibs, insofar as they did not already live elsewhere, have left then their parental home at Almondestraat 24 in Rotterdam.
Also David and his wife Sara left on 6 December 1922 the Almondestraat 24 for the Schooterboschstraat 21c, but thereafter moved another five times, till they found a house per 19 February 1931 in the Burgemeester Roosstraat 50a. However, on 6 January 1932, Sara den Hartogh was hospitalized in the Psychiatric Institution Maasoord in Poortugaal, where she passed away on 15 July 1936.
In the period between 1932 and 1941, David Schnitzler moved ten more times, from lodging to lodging, until he had to move another three times in 1940 after the bombardment of Rotterdam of 14 May 1940. On 10 October 1940 he had a room in the Zaagmolenstraat 41a in the district “Het Oude Noorden”. During the time of the compulsory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands, up from 10 January 1941, David Schnitzler was registered at the address Moerkerkestraat 12b, located in the “Tarwebuurt” (the so called Wheat District), his last known address in Rotterdam.
David Schnitzler was taken to concentration camp Vught on 22 April 1943, from where he was transported to Westerbork on 9 May. In Westerbork he stayed a few days in barrack 57, till he was put on transport on 11 May to Sobibor. On arrival there on 14 May 1943, he was immediately killed in the gas chambers there.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of David Schnitzler and Salomon Tokkie, wedding certificate Rotterdam wedding Schitzler/den Hartogh; certificate of death nr. 172 dated 22 July 1936 from Rotterdam for Sara den Hartogh; website Joods Erfgoed Rotterdam/Maasoord; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of David Schnitzler; website Joods Erfgoed Rotterdam re.anti Jewish measures and compulsory registration of the Jews; website ITS Arolson, registration cards Vught for David Schnitzler.