On Sunday, 9 March 1884, around noon, the Police were notified that a guest of L.C. Wiekera’s Guesthouse, also known as the Willemsbrug Hotel, had not come out of his room since the afternoon of Friday, 7 March. The police report stated the following: [1]
Transcription
Nadat heden vanmiddag aan ’t bureau was kennis gegeven dat in ’t logement van L.C. Wiekera aan de Boompjes, “Hotel Willemsbrug”, een logeergast sedert eergisteren avond niet uit zijne logeerkamer was gekomen, zijnde de deur daarvan gesloten, is de onderinspecteur van politie G. Putman Cramer derwaarts gegaan en is het aan dezen gebleken dat bedoelde logeergast, blijkbaar genaamd M.W. Shapira, boekver kooper, oudheidkenner en agent van het Britsch Museum, zich met een pistoolschot van ’t leven heeft beroofd. Het lijk is na door den geneeskundige M. Eshuijs te zijn in oogenschouw genomen, overgebragt in de loods voor drenkelingen.
Translation
After the bureau was notified this afternoon that in the lodging of L.C. Wiekera at the Boompjes, “Hotel Willemsbrug,” a guest since the day before yesterday evening had not come out of his guestroom, the door being closed, the sub-inspector of the Police G. Putman Cramer entered. It turned out to him that the intended guest, apparently named M.W. Shapira, bookseller, antiquarian, and agent of the British Museum has taken his own life with a pistol shot. After being examined by the physician M. Eshuijs, the corpse was transferred to the shed for drowning persons.
According to a note by Jona Lendering, Inspector Cramer arrived at the hotel at approximately 2:30 p.m., noted the death scene shortly after arrival, returned to the police station around 4:00 p.m., and wrote the report between 5:00-9:30 p.m.
Shapira’s corpse was removed from the room in L.C. Wiekera’s Guesthouse at Number 6 Boompjes. After an examination by a physician, Shapira’s body was delivered to the shed for drowning victims.
Within a few days, the news of Shapira’s death would appear in the local papers and then be dispatched worldwide. I only wish the headlines would have said, “Moses, my servant is dead,” but they didn’t.
[1] The Police Report is recorded in, Dagrapporten Gem. Dienst Bur. Witte de Withst. Afd. 4a 1884. The relevant report appears on pages 3-4 and consists of 16 handwritten lines. Photos of the reports as well as transcriptions can be viewed on a blog post by Jona Lendering titled, “De archiefstukken over Moses Shapira” [The Archival Documents of Moses Shapira] – https://mainzerbeobachter.com/2021/04/01/de-archiefstukken-over-moses-shapira/.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks