Emanuel Zanten was the son of a diamond cutter in Amsterdam. In 1920, he got married to Helena Hertz, daughter of a kosher butcher at the Markenplein in Amsterdam. The couple had two children. Jacob Hans (nickname Jaap) was killed in Buchenwald. The other child survived the war.
Emanuel Zanten trained to become an electro-technician at the HTS. His first assignment was to install lighting in the …