Fina Brandlia Rothstein was a daughter of Pinkus Rothstein and Malka Rotenberg. Fina lived with her parents in Spa (Belgium) but as her father became widowed, he arrived 20 February 1934 in Heemstede with his unmarried daughter Fina at the address Meer en Boslaan 40. Further information from the Archives of Noord Holland show that Fina was born 21 August 1894 in Biobobzreg in Poland. Her father, a son of Abraham Rothstein and Gietele Rubinstein, was born 30 May 1864, also in Biolobzreg. However, he passed away 27 July 1937 in Heemstede. Fina and Pinkus had the Polish nationality and their religion was Jewish.
At the Klinkenberg family of Heemstede Fina was known as “Miss Rothstein” or also cordial named “Rothsteintje”. She was the neighbor of the Klinkenberg family and also pally to the Jewish family of Abraham van Rijs and his wife Sophia van Rijs-Hegt. During the summer holiday of 1941 the Klinkenberg family encamped as usual six weeks near De Koog at Texel. They always welcomed friends, acquaintances to join them during those holidays. Also “Rothsteintje” took part in the holiday party that summer 1941, like the two children of the Van Rijs family from Timorstraat 31 in Heemstede: Henny Hetty, then 9 years old and her sister Diny, who was 6 years old. Miss Rothstein was a pleasant help to the mother of the two girls, Sophia van Rijs-Hegt. The reason the two Van Rijs girls were invited to join the family to Texel too was because Dineke, daughter of de Klinkenberg family was the schoolfriend of Henny Hetty and Diny.
After the passing of Fina’s father in 1937, she lived alone in the big house on the corner of Meerweg and Meer en Boslaan. However, it is not known whether she and her father lived at Johannes Vermeerstraat 32 in Heemstede already before 1937, or that Fina moved to Johannes Vermeerstaat after the passing of her father. At the other hand it is known that she had to move from Heemstede to Amsterdam at some point and that she lived at several addresses in that city: 18 July 1942 she lived at Haringvlietstraat 11 down floor – 12 May 1943 she had to move to Dintelstraat 84 2nd floor – 2 August 1943 she left again for Haringvlietstraat 13 2nd floor and per 18 August 1943 her newest and latest known address was Tugelaweg 147 2nd floor in the neighborhood “Transvaal” in Amsterdam.
29 September 1943 Fina Rothstein was registered in Camp Westerbork where she had to stay in barrack 70, until she was deported eventually 25 January 1944 to Auschwitz. Upon arrival there on 28 January 1943 she has been killed immediately.
Sources: Mr. Hans Felius of the Archive of Noord Holland; the stories of the Klinkenberg, Van Rijs and Rothstein families, told by the 86-year old Mrs. Dineke Klinkenberg from Amsterdam 12 June 2017; website www.wiewaswie.nl, the passing of Pinkus Rothstein; City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Fina Brandlia Rothstein; https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/inventaris/5009.nl.html#KLAF01038000028, the link to the certifcate of death of Fina Brandlia Rothstein and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Fina Brandlia Rothstein.