The only son of Eliazer Wijnberg and Roza van Polen was Jozef Elkan Wijnberg, who was born in Groningen on October 17, 1923. He lived with his parents at Mesdagstraat 60 and 69 but moved with them on February 12, 1940, when he was 17 years old, to Niersstraat 18, 2nd floor in Amsterdam.
Jozef Elkan Wijnberg had a 3-year MULO education and worked as a warehouse and office clerk and an apprentice textile worker. He was very suitable for his work, according to notes on his registration card from the Jewish Council.
On July 22, 1942, after he had undoubtedly been called up for the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz” too, he was provisionally exempted from deportation by the Jewish Council, which resulted in a “Sperre because of function” on September 12, 1942. Jozef became an archive keeper at the Travel- and Removal Permits department of the Jewish Council, which was located in Amsterdam at Amstel 25.
According to information from the Amsterdam City Archives, his father started working as an employee of the Jewish Council on September 1, 1942. However, on September 11, his father and mother were arrested and taken to Westerbork and deported to Auschwitz on September 14. Mother Roza of Poland was murdered there on September 17, 1942 and his father there on September 23, 1942.
Until September 23, 1943, Jozef Elkan Wijnberg was able to work for the Jewish Council and survived countless raids because of his Sperre. His Sperre number/stamp was 80640, the actual Jewish Council stamps, which may have allowed him to avoid the exemptions canceled by the Germans in May and June 1943, but also the great raid of June 20, 1943 and others.
Amsterdam was on its way to becoming “Judenrein”; The Jewish Council was dissolved at the end of September 1943 and shortly before that, on the 23rd, Jozef Elkan Wijnberg was transferred from Amsterdam to Westerbork with a so-called S-transport (penal transport), where he ended up in penal barrack 67. On October 19, 1943, Jozef was deported to Auschwitz, where he arrived three days later.
Upon arrival at Auschwitz, a selection immediately took place, in which, according to the average estimate of survivors, approximately 350 men were selected. The rest, such as the old, sick, weak, women and children, were immediately taken away to be gassed. Approximately 230 fit men were employed after four weeks of "quarantine" for rubble-clearing work in the destroyed Warsaw Ghetto and about 120 men were sent to the coal mines of Jawischowitz.
Post-war research by the Red Cross has shown that the men who belonged to the various transports to Auschwitz, including those of August 31, September 7 and October 19, 1943, were transported from Auschwitz to Warsaw, together with foreigners. It is therefore likely that Jozef Elkan Wijnberg was also selected for rubble clearance work in the Warsaw ghetto and, after quarantine, was transferred to Warsaw on November 26, 1943.
H. Wielek describes in his book "The War that Hitler Won" that the clearing of the rubble from the destroyed ghetto lasted until July 28, 1944 under the most humiliating and brutal conditions. Because the Russians were then in front of the city, the crematorium that was under construction was no longer completed and 600 sick prisoners who could no longer walk were shot dead, and the remaining had to travel 120 km. walk to Kutno, from where they were transported with 90 men by cattle wagon to Dachau. (source “The War that Hitler Won” p.381 by H.Wielek, published in 1947 by the ABC company in Amsterdam).
It has also been established that many prisoners of this Jewish camp in Warsaw died during a severe typhus epidemic in early 1944. Including many Jews from the Netherlands. It was not possible to determine exactly where and when Jozef Elkan Wijnberg died.
The general conclusion, as determined by the Red Cross after investigation, is that all men who are known or must be assumed to have belonged to one of the groups transferred to Warsaw, unless individually proven otherwise, must be assumed to have to have died:
A): not earlier than the day of their departure from Auschwitz (26 November 1943 - see page 11 publication "Auschwitz IV"), but no later than 31 March 1944, insofar as they arrived after the latter date (on which the typhus epidemic that prevailed in the ghetto can be considered to have died down) have no longer been found in Warsaw or elsewhere;
B): not earlier than April 1, 1944, but no later than July 28, 1944 (date of evacuation of the survivors to Dachau), insofar as they were still reported in Warsaw after March 31, 1944, but were not found during the evacuation transport or afterwards.
Based on the above, the Dutch Authorities determined after the war that Jozef Elkan Wijnberg could no longer be alive after March 31, 1944. The municipality of Amsterdam was then instructed to draw up a death certificate for him, stating that Jozef Elkan Wijnberg died in Poland on March 31, 1944.
Sources include: the Amsterdam City Archives, Jozef Elkan Wijnberg archive card; the archives of the Jewish Council, registration card of Jozef Elkan Wijnberg; Death certificate 472 from register A88-folio 84 dated 19-10-1951 for Jozef Elkan Wijnberg, drawn up in Amsterdam; the archives of the Red Cross, S-transport list of 23 September 1943 from Amsterdam to Lager Westerbork/no. 117-Jozef Wijnberg; the archive of the Red Cross, publication "Auschwitz IV" from October 1953, page 5 General, page 43 Chapter III sub III, overview page 44, and pages 55, 56 and 57/transport from 9 October 1943 and pages .68/summary of the conclusion on the transport of October 19, 1943; publication Auschwitz VI Warsaw pp. 123-125.