Hartog Godschalk was the youngest son of David Godschalk and Eva van der Hal. He was born 14 February 1890 in Uithuizen (province of Groningen). At the age of 27, he married 12 September 1917 in Rotterdam the 34-year old Elisabeth Walg, a daughter of Eduard Walg and Klaartje Blok. And on 18 September 1918 their son David was born.
On 6 December 1916, Hartog Godschalk left Uithuizen for Rotterdam, where he lived at Westewagenstraat 69 at the home of Walg. A few days after his wedding which has been closed 12 September, the newly married couple moved 17 September 1917 to Den Haag, where they started at Spui 164. There their son David was born. Afterwards they have lived at Wagenstraat 145, Zwolschestraat 395, moved to Rijswijk in June 1933 and returned to Den Haag in 1935 (Gouverneurslaan 496, Alberdink Thijmstraat 67 and Marktweg 31). The last known address of the Hartog Godschalk family was Weteringkade 23 in Den Haag.
In May 1940 the family of Jacob Walg (1876-1942) lived at Leeuwenstraat 7a in Rotterdam. During the bombardment of Rotterdam, their daughter Klaartje (1918) lost her life on 14 May 1940. His wife Catharina Walg-Walg (1895) died six days later on 20 May 1940, most likely due to that bombardment. On 27 December 1940, Jacob Walg, his son Louis (1920-1943) and daughter Johanna Cateau (1924-1942) moved to Den Haag, where they came to live in with the family of Hartog Godschalk at Weteringkade 23. Father and son were killed in Auschwitz on 24 October 1942 and Louis on 16 July 1943 in Sobibor.
Between 1916 and 1917 the profession of Hartog Godschalk was registered in Rotterdam as “shopkeeper”; in Den Haag he was a “shopkeeper in butter etc.” but at the time of the mandatory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands at the Jewish Council, "manufacturer" was registered as his profession, but it was unclear what he was manufacturing. Other sources show that in April 1942 he was working as a ”worker in a surgar factory”. Also his still unmarried son David worked as “worker in a sugar factory” but his previous profession was “commercial traveller”.
On 4 October 1942, Hartog Godschalk, his wife Elisabeth Walg and their son David were carried off from their residence in Den Haag to Westerbork and already next day, 5 October, put on transport to Auschwitz. This transport included more than 2000 deportees, among those the first forwarding of the 10.000 persons from the Jewish labor camps too, which were emptied those days. The transport stopped at Kozel, located ±80 km west from Auschwitz, where 160 men between 156 and 50 years were forcedly had to leave the train, to be employed as forced labourers in the surrounding satellite camps of Auschwitz. Those, who remained in the train, were transported onwards to Auschwitz to be killed there.
Hartog's wife Elisabeth Walg was fated to be forwarded to Auschwitz where she was immediately killed in the gas chambers on arrival on 8 October. But it is more than likely that Hartog Godschalk and his son David have belonged to the group of 160 persons who had to leave the train in Kozel. It is not known, where Hartog and his son David were forced to do forced labor. But it is known that Hartog Godschalk eventually died 31 December 1944 in Auschwitz. David Godschalk lost his life on 7 February somewhere in Mid Europe.
Sources among others: website wiewaswie.nl/births of David Godschalk, Hendrika Lezer and Eva van der Hal; website allegroningers.nl/ birth of Hartog Godschalk; Municipal Archive of Den Haag, family registgration card of Hartog Godschalk; City Archive of Rotterdam family registration cards of Hartog Godschalk and Jacob Walg; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Hartog Godschalk, Eva Godschalk-Walg and David Godschalk; death certificates from Den Haag for Hartog Godschalk nr. C3814-1951 and for Elisabeth Walg, nr. C937-1951.