Ricka Aronius was the youngest child of Abraham Aronius and Bertha Morpurgo. She was born 31 January 1939 in Amsterdam and had also a 4-year older brother.
Her father, Abraham Aronius was born in Beilen in the province of Drenthe but lived since 28 May 1928 already in Amsterdam in the Niasstraat 29. On 27 June 1934 her father got married to Bertha Morpurgo from Amsterdam and on 24 January 1935, her brother Andries was born.
Ricka’s father originally was a butcher by profession but since 1 September 1934 he possessed already a vendor permit for selling ice cream for consumption in some districts of Amsterdam. On 14 April 1936, the Aronius family moved over to De la Reijstraat 8 3rd floor in the Transvaal district of Amsterdam.
On his vendor permit a note was made that he was “unemployed” since 6 December 1937 and per 20 April 1938, the family was “again in the support”. Furthermore, documents show that in the period between 6 February and 17 August 1941 Ricka’s mother reported to the police “the missing of a general distribution booklet (new). Daily necessities of life became scarcer and much was already only obtainable on the voucher. Possibly this contributed to the fact that Ricka Aronius was placed in the Dutch Israëlitic Orphanage in the Rapenburgerstraat 171 in August 1942. There, Jewish girls were taken care of from families that received financial support.
However, the orphanage was evacuated the German occupiers. The occupants have been deported and killed, but before she was deported, the 4-year old Ricka ended up in Westerbork in the penal barrack 66.
On 20 February 1943, an uncle of Ricka, Michel Prins, who lived in Holendrechtstraat 40 2nd floor in Amsterdam has declared to take Ricka into his family and has sent documents and a copy of her I.D. card to the competent authorities. On 4 March, on her registration card of the Jewish Council a not was made that on 2 March the “documents have been returned as “an exemption” (a Sperre) based on these documents was not possible.
Ricka, also known as Rikje, was deported 2 March 1943 with the first transport from Westerbork to Sobibor and on arrival there on 5 March 1943 she has been immediately killed.
It is presumably that after Ricka was deported to Sobibor, her parents and brother managed to go into hiding; they have survived the Holocaust.
Sources among others: City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Abraham Aronius; vendor permits of Abraham Aronius, archive card of Ricka Aronius; website wiewaswie.nl/police reports Abraham Aronius and Bertha Morpurgo; website Dutch Israëlitic Orphanage and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Abraham Aronius, Bertha Aronius-Morpurgo, Andries Aronius en Ricka Aronius.