LIFE BEFORE THE WAR.
Tobias Biallosterski was born on 18 April 1920 in the municipality of Bloemendaal. He was the second son in the second marriage of Tobias Biallosterski Sr. and his second wife, Guurtje de Graaf. Tobias Sr. was born on January 17th 1883 in Amsterdam. Guurtje was born on December 12th 1897 in Velsen. They married on May 10th 1917 in Schoten, near Amsterdam. Tobias Sr. is recorded as Jewish, but it has been established that he did not practice the religion; he was the operator of a diamond-sawing business in Amsterdam. The family lived in Santpoort, at Kruidbergerweg 99.
Tobias Jr. had an older brother, Willem, and after him a younger brother, Bennie, was born. From his father’s first marriage, Tobias also had two half-brothers, Max and Joop, and two half-sisters, Doortje and Liesje. For more information about the composition of the family, see the Biallosterski family tree.
Not much is known about Tobias’s youth. He loved rowing, breeding rabbits and waterfowl. He was a member of the rowing club Poseidon in Amsterdam. He was a highly skilled rower, and it is said that if the war had not disrupted his life, he could have been part of the Olympic rowing team. He probably attended primary school in Santpoort and possibly went to the MULO (secondary school) in Velsen.
The Biallosterski family moved to Amsterdam on April 23rd 1934, when Tobias was 14, to an apartment on the second floor at Zuider Amstellaan 81. Three years later, they moved again, this time to an apartment on the second floor at Plantage Middellaan 10, Amsterdam.
Tobias completed the MULO in Amsterdam and then went on to the MTS (secondary technical school) to study architecture and civil engineering. He probably studied there from 1935 to 1937 but failed the final exam.
Through his father, he then began working as an apprentice diamond cutter at the firm Stodel in Amsterdam. Exactly how long he worked there is not known.
Shortly before the outbreak of the war in the Netherlands, Tobias Sr. went to England at the request of the firm J.K. Smit to explore setting up diamond-sawing operations there. He was supposed to fly back to Schiphol on Whit Monday, but the war made this impossible, and he was forced to remain in England for the duration of the war.
In view of the above, mother Guurtje moved back to Santpoort with her three sons and moved in with her own mother at Kruidbergerweg 49. Their own house had been rented out for a longer period after the move to Amsterdam.
Tobias first worked for a while at nearby farms and later became a delivery worker for the Marnix Pharmacy in Haarlem. During this period, Tobias also became a member of the resistance movement Orde Dienst.
Tobias was engaged to a Jewish girl named Klara Oudkerk. She was born in Den Helder but had also moved to Amsterdam. She was a niece of Sarah Oudkerk, the girlfriend of Henk Pelser. Tobias had met Henk before the war and perhaps came into contact with his fiancée through Henk’s girlfriend. The engagement ring Tobias gave her, Klara wore for her entire life.
For some reason, the engagement was broken off, but they remained in contact, even while Tobias was on his second mission in Amsterdam. He went to have tea with friends of Klara’s parents, the Bürmann family, but did not meet Klara there. During her period in hiding in Santpoort, she only visited the Bürmann family once.
Mr. Bürmann advised Tobias, when he came to visit during his mission, to dress differently. He was wearing very neat clothing and polished shoes that he had received from England. People no longer wore fine clothes, as almost nothing was available for purchase. Tobias, however, was a bit of a dandy and insisted on always looking neat. This later proved to be fatal for him.
Joseph Stodel was born on 25 June 1875 in Dordrecht, the son of Benedictus Stodel and Marianne Slap, and was of Jewish descent. On 4 April 1901, Stodel married Mietje Krijn, born on 18 January 1878 in Amsterdam, who was murdered on 14 January [1943] in Auschwitz. From this marriage, a child was born on 19 October of the same year, their daughter Marianne Stodel, who passed away on 23 February 1993 in New York.
On 1 July 1930, Stodel founded the sole proprietorship J. Stodel. This business, located at Weesperplein in Amsterdam, specialized in diamond processing and trade. The Stodel-Krijn couple lived at Sarphatistraat 119, Amsterdam.
Stodel died on 28 September 1941 in Amsterdam. The assets belonging to his estate were, by order of the occupying authorities, placed under the administration of Verwalter M.H.H. Franssen. This Dutch lawyer had been appointed on 13 October 1941 by Seyss-Inquart as administrator of estates falling under the provisions of Regulation 26/1940 (Enemy Property, including non-Jewish). Franssen was likely involved in settling Stodel’s estate because the sole heir, his daughter Marianne, was living in the United States during the occupation.
Stodel’s wife was arrested in 1942 by order of the occupying authorities and transferred to Westerbork. She was later deported to Auschwitz, where she perished around 14 January 1943.
Marianne Stodel married Hartog Mok (diamond merchant) on 3 December 1929 in Amsterdam. He was born on 24 December 1889 in Amsterdam and died around 1961 in New York. They had two children, Mary E. Mok and Louis Mok (patent attorney), born 4 November 1932, died 5 January 2008 in Los Angeles. Louis married Victoria Bowes, and they had two children: Alexander Mok and Linda Mok.
After the war, Marianne, Joseph Stodel’s daughter, reported the damages regarding the sale of her father’s estate to the Damage Inquiry Commission (Schade-Enquête-Commissie). In this context, an investigation was conducted by the Central Asset Recovery Service (Centrale Vermogensopsporingsdienst, CVO). In the consulted documents, no information was found on the further course of this investigation by the CVO. The commission found no indications that the Stodel family received compensation for the loss of a painting.
In 2010, the Restitution Committee advised the State Secretary of Education, Culture and Science to restitute the painting “Dutch Cityscape” by A. Eversen (NK 1762) to the heirs of Joseph Stodel.
Jan Kors Smit started his business in 1888 after reading an advertisement in Het Handelsblad seeking industrial diamonds. He had already gained considerable knowledge about diamonds through years of experience in the industry as the director of a diamond cutting company in Amsterdam. Jan Kors Smit recognized this as an opportunity to establish a family business that could later be continued by his sons.
This advertisement gave Jan Kors Smit the necessary drive to build the organization, which soon became operational on the international market. J.K. Smit was for a long time a pioneer in the development of industrial diamonds.
Jan Kors Smit trained his sons in the work, and when he retired, he was able to pass the company on to his eldest son, Johan J. Smit. By that time, the company already had two factories and 25 branches. These branches were not only in the Netherlands but also in countries such as the United States, Canada, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Australia, Japan, and China.
The headquarters of J.K. Smit & Sons from 1888 to 1973 was located at Sarphatistraat in Amsterdam.
During the First World War, Johan Smit, despite the neutrality of the Netherlands, consistently refused to trade diamonds with the Central Powers, even though this caused significant financial losses for the company.
During wartime, particularly due to the mass production of ammunition, the demand for industrial diamonds increased on an unprecedented scale. Even after the war, the demand for industrial diamonds remained high, and in 1934, the American branch of J.K. Smit & Sons was established as J.K. Smit & Sons Inc. in New York. Here, the company produced diamond tools for the first time. The first tool invented by the firm was the multi-set core drill, which later became an essential component for mining machinery.
The financial consequences of the war for the company were far greater in the Second World War than in the First. On one hand, there was enormous growth in the use of diamond tools, but on the other hand, operations were disrupted by the German invasion of the Netherlands.
In 1939, Johan sent his eldest son, Jan, to England, kept his second son, Johan Jr., with him, and sent his youngest son, Piet, to America. Jan traveled back to Amsterdam together with a British officer, Chidson. Johan handed over the entire company stock of diamonds and instructed them that he would rather have the diamonds sink to the bottom of the sea than fall into German hands.
Upon returning to London, Jan followed his father’s instructions and established the British branch of the company, which was named “The Head Office of the Smit World Organization.”
Johan J. Smit and his son Johan Jr. remained in the Netherlands, completely isolated from the outside world until the end of the war finally arrived.
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