Rika Augurk was the first of the three childen from the first wedlock of Leendert Augurk to Rosa Bernhard. She was born in Amsterdam on 11 December 1885 and married there on 9 March 1904 Salomon Porcelijn, a son of Hartog Porcelijn and Rachel Vischjager. He was born on 12 April 1883 and earned his living in all kinds of ways: as a casual worker in the mines, as a peddler, as a dealer in irregular goods, but from 1922 he became a vendor in herring and in various types of smoked, dried and fresh fish, which he sold on the market in Amsterdam.
The Porcelijn-Augurk couple had seven children, namely Rosette in 1904, Rachel in 1905, Jeannette in 1907, Leendert in 1909, Hartog in 1911, David in 1913 and Louis in 1916. Of these children only Rachel survived the Holocaust; all other children were murdered in the Shoah with their families.
The Porcelijn family lived in the Lange Houtstraat in Amsterdam, where they have dwelled at various house numbers. In 1909 they stayed shortly with their still four children Rosette, Rachel, Jeannette and Leendert, in Kray Süd in Germany, located between Essen and Bochum, but returned to Amsterdam in that same year.
In July 1924 Salomon Porcelijn, his wife Rika Augurk and their children Jeannette, Leendert, Hartog, David and Louis went for Nijmegen. Also there they stayed only for a short time; per October 1924 they lived again in Amsterdam in the Lange Houtstraat, now at house nr. 65.
Between 1924 and 1938 the Porcelijn family stayed at various addresses in the city, like at Boniplein 16 in the Eastern district of Amsterdam, in the Batavierstraat, the Boerhaavestraat, the Vrolikstraat, the Insulindeweg but per 20 April 1938 they moved into a house in the Ruyschstraat 79 1st floor in Amsterdam-East.
During the large-scale round-ups, the German occupiers had organized in the early days of October 1942, Salomon Porcelijn and his wife Rika Augurk were arrested and carried off to Westerbork. They arrived there somewhere between 3 and 5 October 1942, where they must have found chaotic scenes. Not only the many victims of the round-ups, but also the forced labourers from the on 3 October 1942 liquidated Jewish labor camps in the North Netherlands were brought to Westerbork “for deportation to the East” at the same time.
Notes on the registration cards from the file cabinet of the Jewish Council showed that both were accommodated in barrack 59, where – as far as is known – the shoemaking and the clothing repair were located. But also that Salomon most likely must have obtained some postponement from deportation, due to “his work in distribution of food” as vendor of fish at the street market. One of the notes at his registration card read “Lok Z”, possibly his stall was designated as a so-called “Joodsch Lokaal” (Jewish business), were only Jews were allowed to buy.
It still took more than 3 ½ month before Salomon Porcelijn and Rika Augurk were put on transport but eventually, both were deported in a transport of 1108 deportees on 16 February 1943 from Westerbork to Auschwitz. Upon arrival there on 19 February 1943 they were both immediately gassed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Salomon Porcelijn and Leendert Augurk; Amsterdam vendor permits of Salomon Porcelijn and archive cards of Salomon Porcelijn and Rika Augurk; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Salomon Porcelijn and Rika Porcelijn-Augurk and the Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.