Leidsestraat 24

Joachim Zurel came from a large Amsterdam family with eight daughters and four sons, of whom one daughter and one son died as babies. Joachim was a rag sorter by trade and in the 1930s he and his brother Mozes ran a rag trade in Haarlem for some time.

On May 28, 1924, Joachim married Rachel Matteman in Haarlem. Together they had four children, Benedictus (1925), Eliazar (1928), Abraham (1929) and Martha (1930). Rachel died on November 1, 1930, five days after the birth of their youngest daughter Martha. Martha was taken into the family of Joachim's sister Engeltje Tierlier-Zurel in Zeist. She did not survive the war. Martha was 12 years old. On October 5, 1932, Joachim remarried in Haarlem to the widow Catharina de Vries, with whom he had another son in 1938, Joseph.

Joachim Zurel, his brother Mozes and later also Joachim's eldest son Benedictus were members of the HDC, the Haarlemsche Damclub. They were talented drafts players. Joachim made it to the first division of the drafts competition and is regularly mentioned in the match reports and reports, even as a contender for the championship title of the Haarlem club. They didn't get it from a stranger: grandfather Zurel already played in the Amsterdam drafts competition, at Damclub D.O.S. (Through Exercise Stronger). Other members of the Zurel family also played at various levels in the regional and national drafts competition.

The Zurel family did not respond to the first appeal of 23 August 1942 to all Haarlem Jews to report. They were probably arrested during the raids of the following days. On August 26, 1942, Joachim arrived in Westerbork, together with his wife Catharina and his four sons. Two days later they were deported to Auschwitz.

In Cosel, about 80 km. west of Auschwitz, Joachim was forced off the train along with his son Benedictus and other men between the ages of 15 and 50. The selected men were forced to work in labor camps near Auschwitz, including Sakrau, which also functioned as a transit camp and infirmary. For Joachim, Sakrau was the first camp after he had to leave the train in Cosel. In which camp he died is unknown. His official date of death has been set at April 30, 1943. This is a collective date that indicates that he was no longer alive at that time and his exact date of death is unknown.

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