After she was registered as unmarried by the Joodsche Raad in the course of 1941, Judith van Kollem married Jonas Fresco in Den Haag on 18 August 1942, who was born there on 11 July 1918 as the son of Mozes Fresco and Naatje Wolff. Judith was the eldest daughter of Saartje Speelman and Simon Salomon van Kollem and was born on 31 July 1922 in Amsterdam.
When also in August 1942 the occupying forces had determined that all Jews had to leave Den Haag and the first roundups and deportations there started, Jonas Fresco no doubt belonged to the first to be deported from Den Haag as the first transport from there to Westerbork took place on 18 August 1942 too. On 20 August 1942 he arrived in Westerbork and already the next day, 21 August he was deported to Auschwitz.
It is very likely that this same fate also befell Jonas's newly wed wife, Judith van Kollem, although no notes have been found on her registration card of the Jewish Council that indicate a transport date to Auschwitz.
The 21 August transport included a total of 1008 deportees, almost all of whom were put to work in the camp upon arrival at Auschwitz on 23/24 August 1942. Conditions there turned out to be terrible and very soon the first victims died there as a result of hardship, mistreatment or gassing in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
It is not known on what date exactly Judith van Kollem lost her life there and under what circumstances. After the war, the Dutch authorities determined, partly on the basis of survivors' testimonies and research, that she could no longer be alive after 30 September 1942. That is why the Municipality of Den Haag was commissioned to draw up an official death certificate for Judith Fresco-van Kollem, in which it is stated that she died on 30 September in Auschwitz.
It was also unknown after the war for her husband, Jonas Fresco, when and under what circumstances he died in Auschwitz. That is why the Dutch authorities have also determined for him that he could no longer be alive after 30 September 1942, after which the Municipality of Den Haag has also drawn up an official death certificate for Jonas Fresco, in which it is established that he too has died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
However, from the remaining death registers from Auschwitz, that were found in later years – the "Sterbebücher" - it appears that Jonas Fresco was not murdered on 30 September, but on 11 October 1942 in Auschwitz. But the Jewish Monument continues to adhere to the officially established date of death of 30 September 1942. (see also the adjacent story: "The deviating date of death of Jonas Fresco).
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family regisration card of Simon Salomon van Kollem; the Municipal Archive of Den Haag, wedding certificate of Jonas Fresco x Judith van Kollem of 18 Aug 1942 – nr. E722; family registration card of Mozes Fesco; the file cabinet of the Jewish Concil, registration cards of Judith van Kollem en Jonas Fresco; Heritage Foundation Den Haag (Stichting Erfgoed Den Haag)/deportations and raids in summer 1942; certificates of death, made out in Den Haag on 15 September 1950 nr. C2349 for Jonas Fresco and nr. C2350 for Judith Fresco-van Kollem and additions of visitors of the website.