Gabriela Rebekka Leyser

Gabriele Rebekka, Gabi Leyser was born on 27 October 1940 in Amsterdam. She is the daughter of Gitta Leyser-Rechnitz and Lothar Leyser. Her parents met in the Werkdorp 1.5 years earlier. They both fled Germany. Her parents got married in September 1940 and one month later Gabi was born at 34 Dintelstraat, where Lothar’s mother lived with her elderly parents. At that time Lothar was still living in the Werkdorp. He was one of the 60 Werkdorp people who were allowed to stay after the eviction of the Werkdorp on 20 March 1941. But her father Lothar also went to Amsterdam after the final closure of the werkdorp in August 1941.    

As an almost 1 year old she and her parents moved to Huizen in September 1941, where they found shelter in a garden house “De Kwartel” behind the house of the de Wette family. They stayed there for more than a year. Her father Lothar supported the family by taking care of private gardens in Huizen. On 23 January 1942 her sister Judith Ursela Lea was born in Naarden, probably in the hospital.

In November 1942, all Jews in the Gooi region had to move to Amsterdam. The young family left for Amsterdam again and moved in with her father’s mother at Dintelstraat 34-hs. On Sunday 20 June 1943 Lothar and Gitta and their children were rounded up in one of the large successive razzias and put on a train via Muiderpoort station to Westerbork. He had a ‘sperr’ and so did she as his wife, but nevertheless, a few weeks later, on 6 July 1943, they were put on a transport to Sobibor, where, on 9 July, all four were murdered immediately upon arrival.