David van Praag was a son of Zacharias van Praag and Schoontje Geleerd. He married Mietje Oudkerk, a daughter of Benjamin Oudkerk and Clara van Tijn, on 19 May 1908 in Den Helder. They had a daughter Clara who survived the war with her husband Aron Moscoviter and their three children. They also had a son Jacques, who married Elisabeth Coopman in 1940 and they also survived the war.
David came from a family with six children: himself, Evalina, Betje, Henri, Levie and Louis. They were all also murdered during the Holocaust. His wife Mietje Oudkerk came from a family with seven children, of which Hijman and Belo survived the Holocaust, of which a previously born Hijman died in 1884, aged 1 ½ years, but of which the other 5 children were Elsje, Jacomina, Meijer and Mietje themselves during the Holocaust. Shoa were murdered.
David van Praag lived with his family at Hunzestraat 9 in Amsterdam-Zuid. He was a butcher and during the war he was “exempted from deportaion due to fuction” (for the time being). He worked for the Jewish Council in the meat supply at Slagerij de Vries at Christiaan de Wetstraat 3 in Amsterdam East. For this purpose he had received identification from the Council with number C2014.
As early as May 1943, the Germans decided that more Jews should be employed in the East, where many exemptions from deportation had lapsed and countless were arrested and deported during raids. David and his wife Mietje also fell prey to this: during a secretly prepared raid on 20 June 1943, more than 5500 Jews were rounded up in Amsterdam and taken to Westerbork.
In Westerbork they both ended up in barrack 62, waiting for their deportation. That followed on 29 June 1943; they were transported to an unknown destination that would later turn out to be Sobibor. Upon arrival there on 2 July David van Praag and his wife Mietje Oudkerk, together with 2395 other victims, were immediately murdered. There were no survivors.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, David van Praag family card; archive cards of David van Praag, Mietje Oudkerk, Clara van Praag, Aron Moscoviter and Elisabeth Coopman; the archive of the Jewish Council, registration cards of David van Praag, Mietje van Praag-Oudkerk, Clara van Praag and Jacques van Praag, website www.wiewaswie.nl and the website Jodentransporten uit Nederland.nl
(story updated 15 Jan. 2024).