Frederika Kokernoot was the eldest of the six children of Matthijs Kokernoot and Mietje Gompers. Her father died already at the age of 47 in 1911, but her mother, brother and five sisters were all killed during the Shoah. Frederika worked as diamond cutter and as childcare worker. On 7 June 1928 she married Hijman Mouwes in Amsterdam, a son of David Mouwes and Betje van Praag. The couple had no children.
Hijman Mouwes was born into a family wit six chidren. One sister, Sara, was mixed-married and survived the Holocaust. His mother, Betje van Praag, passed away in Amsterdam in 1912 at the age of 50 years, after which his father David Mouwes remarried Sara Koekoek ten months later. Hijman had six siblings, who were all killed during the Shoah, just as his father David and stepmother Sara.
Hijman was diamond polisher and commercial traveler in tools and lived at Blasiusstraat 26 in Amsterdam. After he married Frederika Kokernoot on 7 June 1928 in Amsterdam, the couple lived at Oude IJsselstraat 3 3rd stock in Amsterdam-South and in 1935 they moved into a house at Kinderdijkstraat 10 parterre.
“Because of function, Frederika Mouwes-Kokernoot had a “Sperre” from the Jewish Council. She had this job as caregiver in in the children’s home at Amsteldijk 21 in Amsterdam, which was located at the same address as of her mother Mietje Kokernoot-Gompers and her unmarried sister Stella. Because Frederika had been exempted from deportation for the time being, it also applied to her husband Hijman Mouwes.
But on 29 September 1942 both were arrested and carried off to Westerbork, where Hijman ended up in barrack 55 and Frederika in barrack 46. Only on 20 February 1943 they were transferred to concentration camp Vught, where Hijman had to stay in barrack B-41-B and Frederika in barrack B-31-A. On 8 June 1943 Frederika had to join the so-called “children transports” from Vught via Westerbork to Sobibor; Frederika in her role as childcare worker and Hijman went with her.
The children transports from camp Vught were two mass deportations to Westerbork on 6 and 7 June 1943 of all present Jewish children in Vught, and from Westerbork deported to extermination camp Sobibor on 8 June 1943. The transport as a whole, contained 3017 persons in total, children, mothers and care givers. On arrival in Sobibor on 11 June 1943, the more than 1000 children aged 0 till 16 years and all others, among them also Frederika Mouwes-Kokernoot and her husband Hijman Mouwes were immediately killed there
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cares of Hijman Mouwes, David Mouwes and Frederika Kokernoot, family registration careds of David Mouwes and Hijman Mouwes; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Hijman Mouwes and Frederika Mouwes-Kokernoot, website wiewaswie and the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl