Elsje Oudkerk, born on 7 October 1880 in Den Helder, was the eldest of the 7 children of Benjamin Oudkerk and Klaartje van Tijn. In 1882 she had a brother Hijman, who died in childhood on 15 May 1884. In October 1886 another Hijman was born who married Debora Elte; this Hijman survived the Holocaust with his wife and 2 children and died in 1972 in Amsterdam.
Hijman's sister Belo, who was born in December 1887 was the youngest of the couple. She also survived the Shoah and returned to Den Helder with her husband Levie Elte after the war. Elsje's other sibs (Jacomina, Meijer, Mietje and herself) were murdered with their families during the Shoah.
On 11 February 1903, Elsje Oudkerk married the Antwerp-born commercial agent Ludovicus Oudkerk in Den Helder, sometimes called Louis or Lodewijk. He was born on 23 November 1878 as a son of Levie Oudkerk and Hester Meiboom. After the marriage took place in Den Helder, they left for Belgium, where their daughter Klara Freia was born in Antwerp on 13 April 1904, followed by Hermanus Ludovicus on 23 April 1907 in Borgerhout and thirdly, Benjamin Roeland, who was born in Sint Denijs (located in southern Belgium/West Flanders) on 4 February 1913.
The Ludovicus Oudkerk family stayed in Belgium until 1919; then they returned to the Netherlands and settled in the 1st Boerhaavestraat 10 ground floor in Amsterdam. They lived there until 1930; on 8 March 1930 they moved to the Ruyschstraat 45 ground floor.
After her marriage in February 1932,daughter Klara Freia moved into the upper house at Pythagorasstraat 87 in Amsterdam-East with her husband Samuel Vorst.
Son Hermanus Ludovicus left his parental home in 1931 to Oude Doelenstraat 16, and on 8 March 1937, he moved with his non-Jewish wife from Amsterdam to Rotterdam.
Son Benjamin Roeland, a pastry chef by profession, who was born in Sint Denijs, came with his family from Belgium to Amsterdam on 27 May 1919, at 1st Boerhaavestraat 10 ground floor, but left on 20 October 1930 for Koningstraat 3 in Den Helder. He returned only on 11 August 1938 again to his parents at Ruyschstraat 45 ground floor in Amsterdam. After leaving again for Antwerp on 14 November in that same year, he returned from there to Ruyschstraat 45 again on 8 June 1940.
In 1941, all Jews in the Netherlands were obliged to register with the Jewish Council, which had been established by the Germans on 13 February 1941. After his registration, Ludovicus Oudkerk got a job at the “bread supply” department of the Jewish Council and was therefore provisionally exempted from deportation or for the “Arbeitseinsatz” in the East “due to his function”. As a result, his wife Elsje was also “gesperrt bis weiteres”. Their “Sperre-numbers” 90872 and 96583 respectively were stated on their Jewish Council cards as well as in their identity cards.
In May 1943, many Jews were arrested during raids and numerous exemptions were canceled by the Germans. Ludovicus Oudkerk and his wife Elsje also fell victim to this. On 25 May 1943, both were taken by train from Amsterdam Central Station to Westerbork. On the so-called “Hopla deportation lists” with the names of the victims of the raid, it appeared that barrack number 63 in Westerbork had already been indicated in advance on the lists, the barracks where they had to stay in Westerbork until the moment of deportation.
That followed on 1 June 1943; the deportation transport to Sobibor included a total of 2862 deportees. Upon arrival in Sobibor, Ludovicus Oudkerk and his wife Elsje Oudkerk-Oudkerk, together with all other victims, were immediately murdered in the gas chambers there. There were no survivors.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Ludovicus Oudkerk, archive cards of Ludovicus Oudkerk and Elsje Oudkerk; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Ludovicus Oudkerk en Elsje Oudkerk-Oudkerk; the archives of the Red Cross/Hopla transport list of 25 May 1943 Amsterdam->Westerbork, page 19/no’s 988 and 989 Ludovicus Oudkerk en Elsje Oudkerk-Oudkerk and the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/1 June 1943.