Aaltje Springer was a daughter of Barend Springer and Esther Berklou. She was born on 12 June 1899 in Amsterdam. She married Joseph Leeger on 26 May 1920, born on 31 January 1899 to Elias Leeger and Rebecca Wurms. Aaltje and Joseph had three children, namely Esther, Elias and Bernard Bob. All three children were killed during the Shoah.
The marriage of Aaltje and Joseph did not last; the divorce was pronounced in Amsterdam on 19 June 1936, but from 1934 Aaltje and Joseph were no longer living together. Aaltjes ex-husband moved in with his father Elias Leeger on the Zwanenburgwal 6 I in July 1934 however, on 4 July 1940 he was admitted as a patient to the Jewish Psychiatric Hospital “Het Apeldoornsche Bosch”. All patients and staff, among them Joseph Leeger, were brutally deported from Apeldoorn to Auschwitz on 22 April 1943 and immediately murdered on arrival there on 25 January 1943.
When Aaltje and Joseph separated and Joseph Leeger went to live with his father, Aaltje had already moved in January 1934 with her children to the address Amstel 129 and in 1937 they moved again; now to Kerkstraat 384 II. Her daughter Esther married Mozes Cohen on 10 April 1940, who was born on 4 June 1919 in Amsterdam as son of Nathan Cohen and Anna Polak. Esther and Mozes then moved to Weesperstraat 75 ground floor and on 27 April 1942 to Nieuwe Kerkstraat 85 III. Elias Leeger, his brother Bernard Bob and their mother Aaltje Springer remained living at Kerkstraat 384 II.
The registration cards of the Jewish Council of Aaltje Springer and those of her children Esther, Elias and Bernard Bob and of her son-in-law Mozes Cohen show, that they were all taken from their home addresses on 14 and 15 January 1943 to the newly opened concentration camp Vught. From mid-January this camp had to be finished by the prisoners in miserable circumstances.
Aaltje Springer and her son Bernard Bob arrived in Vught on 14 January 1943. On 7 June, Bernard Bob was put on transport on the so-called children's transport from Vught to Westerbork, where he had to spend the night in barrack 58. His mother accompanied him. The following day, 8 June 1943 both were deported to Sobibor where they were immediately murdered on arrival on 11 June 1943.
Elias Leeger, his sister Esther Cohen-Leeger and her husband Mozes Cohen were brought into camp Vught at the same time in January 1943. Elias and his brother-in-law Mozes Cohen, however, were transferred on 21 May to the so-called "Aussenkommando" Moerdijk, (satellite camp), where they stayed in barrack 5. They had to do heavy physical work there and had to stay there until they were deported from Vught to Auschwitz on 15 November 1943.
Upon arrival in Auschwitz on 18 November, they were again selected to perform forced labor, but it is not known whether that was inside or outside the camp. Esther Cohen-Leeger died there on 15 January 1944 and her husband Mozes Cohen and Esther's brother Elias lost their lives there on 31 January 1944.
After the war, the Ministry of Justice ordered the municipality of Amsterdam to issue death certificates for Elias Leeger, in which it was established that he died in Auschwitz on 31 January 1944; for Esther Cohen-Leeger, in which is established that she died in Auschwitz on 15 January 1944 and for Mozes Cohen, in which is established that he died in Auschwitz on 31 January 1944. Also for Aaltje Springer, in which is established that she was murdered in Sobibor on 11 June 1943 and for her son Bernard Bob Leeger, also murdered in Sobibor on 11 June 1943.
Sources include Amsteram City Archive, archive cards of Aaltje Springer, Esther, Elias and Bernard Bob Leeger, various residence cards of streets in Amsterdam; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Aaltje Springer, Esther Leeger-Cohen, Elias Leeger and Bernard Bob-Leeger and the death certificates for Aaltje Springer, A27-fol.72v-deed 426 dated 19-4-1950; for Bernard Bob Leeger, A25-fol.94 deed 552 dated 12-4-1950; for Elias Leeger, A84-fol.68v deed 400 dated 24-8-1951; for Esther Cohen-Leeger, A94-fol.88 deed 518 dated 22-2-1952 and for Mozes Cohen, A83-fol.91 deed 537 dated 17-8-1950, all drawn up in Amsterdam in connection with the Ministery of Justice.