Betje Bierman was the 2nd child of Levie Bierman and Sara Italiaander. She was born in Amsterdam on 8 September 1897 and married there on 10 April 1918 the diamond polisher Abraham Katwijk, a son of Jacob Katwijk and Sara Gobes, who was born in Amsterdam too on 1 May 1894.
After Betje and Abraham were married, they found living space with the widow Jas at Lange Houtstraat 24a but moved to Nieuwe Kerkstraat 34 1st floor on 26 August 1919 and on 21 November 1921 to the Bernard Kochstraat 10 2nd stock, a side streed of the Cornelis Krusemanstraat. In November 1925 they moved into a house in the Saffierstraat 36 2nd floor in Amsterdam-South, which would turned out to be their last known address in the Netherlands too.
The Katwijk couple had two children, namely Sara and Jacob. Sara married in December 1940 the non-Jewish Hendrik Frans Sonnenschein and survived the war. At the other hand, their son Jacob, an apprentice diamond worker, has been caught during the raid of 11 June 1941, whereafter he eventually ended up in Mauthausen via camp Schoorl. He lost his life in Mauthausen on 16 September 1941.
Betje Bierman and her husband Abraham Katwijk stayed behind in the Saffierstraat. A date stamp of 2 August 1942 on their registration cards of the Jewish Council made clear that a visit was made to the Information Department of the Jewish Council (or a district office), presumably in response to a summons to determine whether there was reason for a temporary exemption. There was no reason to grant them a "Sperre", which was marked on their registration card with a red cross. They remained living in the Saffierstraat 36 2nd floor in Amsterdam. It is also unknown whether they have made attempts to go into into hiding.
According to a police report of Monday, March 6, 1944, they were picked up from their home in the evening. The police report read: “… at 7.30 pm the official van den. Berg (SD) brings in two persons from their home, named Abraham Katwijk, born 1 May 1894 and Betje Bierman, born 8 September 1897 in Amsterdam, residing at Saffierstraat 36 2nd stock here. They remain here for collection for Police Head Quarters”. At 8.30 p.m. it is stated that “the persons, as stated in the report of 7.30 p.m. shall be brought by car to Police Head Quarters by officer Olafsen from dept. 1-a-II”, were at 8.40 p.m. has been established by checking that “Abraham Katwijk is in possession of a sum of money of Fl. 144.33, 7 gas coins and 1 electricity coin”. It is not stated whether this is confiscated or not.
On 9 March Abraham Katwijk and hiw wife Betje Bierman were carried off to Westerbork where they were locked in in the penal barrack 67. On 23 March 1944 they were put on transport to Auschwitz in a transport of in total 599 prisoners. Arrival of this transport in Auschwitz most likely is on 25 or 26 March 1944.
In the same transport of 23 March 1944, the later witness of Abraham Katwijk, the Shoah survivor Isaac de Leeuw (born March 27, 1920) was deported to Auschwitz too. After his repatriation he declared in January 1946 that Abraham Katwijk upon arrival in Auschwitz has been put to work as a forced labourer. Unknown however is whether he was in a command in-or outside the camp. Also his exact date of death is not known.
It was therefore that after the war the Dutch Authorities has established – also based on the testimony of Isaac de Leeuw from the Christiaan de Wetstraat 10 in Amsterdam and from other survivors and research, that Abraham Katwijk no longer could be alive after 31 August 1944. The Municipality of Amsterdam then was commissioned to draw up a certificate of death for Abraham Katwijk, in which it is established that he has died in Auschwitz on 31 August 1944.
Abraham’s wife Betje Bierman was deported with the same transport of 23 March 1944 to Auschwitz. Also Betje Katwijk-Bierman was not sent immediately to the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau but put to work somewhere in that camp. According to a statement made after the war by Mrs. Esther Valença from the Blasiusstraat 64 in Amsterdam, who was in the same transport of 23 March 1944, Betje Katwijk-Bierman should still have lost her life early February 1945, after the liberation of Auschwitz.
On the basis of this statement and of other survivors, however, the Dutch authorities have ordered the municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate for Betje Katwijk-Bierman, in which it is established that she died on January 24, 1945 in Auschwitz.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Jacob Katwijk (1867) and Abraham Katwijk; archive cards of Abraham Katwijk, Betje Bierman, Jacob Katwijk (1922), Sara Gobes and Isaac de Leeuw (witness); Police reports from 6 March 1944 Amsterdam; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Abraham Katwijk and Betje Katwijk-Bierman anf of the witnesses Esther Valença and Isaac de Leeuw; certificates of death made out in Amsterdam, nr 11 of 26 February 1960 from the A-register 116-folio 2verso for Abraham Katwijk, nr. 358 of 27 June 1952 from the A-register 96-folio 62 for Betje Katwijk-Bierman and nr.289 of 23 May 1950 from the A-register 34-folio 50verso for Jacob Katwijk and information about details by Mr. Raymund Schütz.