Biography

About Leentje Ossedrijver and her husband Asser Halmans.

Leentje Ossedrijver was a daughter of Jacob Ossedrijver and Vrouwtje Gans, She was born 6 May 1881 in Amsterdam and worked as a shop girl. On 19 December 1918 she married in Amsterdam Asser Halmand, born in Amsterdam on 24 May 1889, taxi driver and son of David Halmans and Sophia de Jongh. The couple had two children, namely Sophia in 1919 and Frederica in 1922. Both have survived the Holocaust; Leentje and her husband however were killed in the Shoah.

After her marriage in 1918, Leentje and Asser resided in Schaepmanstraat 21 3rd floor in the Amsterdam district of Statesmen, till they had to move on 15 April 1943 to Transvaalstraat 116 2nd floor in Amsterdam-East. At that address lived also Leentjes siblings Eva and Abraham Ossedrijver.

Asser Halmans was “exempted from deportation because of function”. Also his wife Leentje because of the function of her spouse. Asser was an assistant janitor at the Jewish Montesori Lyceum in Guido Gezellestraat 12, messenger and attendant there from May 1942. He used to work as blockband driver at the Amsterdam Taxi Company and was in possession of diplomas for coachmen and driver.

At the end of May 1943 during the big raids, where the Germans required 7000 Jewish Council staff for leaving to Germany, also Asser and Leentje were arrested and taken to Westerbork. On 1 June both were deported to Sobibor and on arrival there on 4 June 1943 immediately killed.

Sources among others: City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive cards of Asser Halmans and Leentje Ossedrijver; website wiewawie.nl/marriage Halmans/Ossedrijver and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of  van Asser Halmans, Leentje Halmans-Ossedrijver, Sophia Halmans en Frederica Halmans.

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