Adolphe Hamburger

Biography

Adolph Cornelis Maria Hamburger, known as Adolphe Hamburger, was an actor. Initially, he was working under the stage name of Adolphe Daymard until 1924, later under his own name, adding an 'e' to his first name. In addition to being an actor, he was also a director and was involved in revue, operetta and small art, in 1925/26 even working in a theater in Antwerp, Belgium. In The Hague, in1921, he married Emérence Johanna Helena Maria van Kalken (1898-1941) and had a child from this marriage. Which was dissolved by divorce in 1924. In 1928, in Amsterdam, he married a second time, to Judith Benjamins. A daughter was born in 1935. Also in 1935 - and 1937 - he played a part in two Dutch 'talkies'. He was to be seen in countless plays in The Netherlands, all through the 1930s, until the Summer of 1942. Both Adolphe and his wife Judith were arrested by the German occupier. In November 1943 they were imprisoned and registered in the transit 'lager' Westerbork, The Netherlands and subsequently deported to Germany on January 20, 1944. Adolphe ended up in various camps, like Theresienstadt . Here Hamburger tried to distract his fellow inmates from everyday camp life with recitations and other artistic activities. From there, another deportation took place on September 28, 1944 to the Auschwitz concentration camp. After less than two weeks, they transferred the actor to the Dachau concentration camp on October 10, 1944. There Adolphe (46) passed away on February 9, 1945 from exhaustion, illness and malnutrition. Just two months before liberation. Judith (44) survived two camps and was liberated, but passed away of sustained sufferings on June 3, 1945. Their daughter survived the war.