Israel Jacob Zangen was the youngest son of Mendel Zangen and Reizel Araten. His mother was widowed already at a young age when his father died in 1904 at the age of 36. After the birth of his eldest sister in Warschau, the Zangen family moved to Rozwadow in the district of Subkarpaten in the South-East of Poland. Before the war, Rozwadow was a thriving stettl. There Israel Jacob was born on 23 March 1899 as the seventh of seven children Zangen. His siblings were Channa Lieba, Simon Mamcia, Emilie Mirl, Lewi Isak, Adele en Samuel Schachna.
Children of Reizel Zangen who have survived the Holocaust were Channa Liebe Zangen, her husband Josef Rosenzweig and her son Hermann Jacob. Their daughter Hanna left for Tel Aviv in 1934 after she married there Ignatz Lichtblau; also Reizel’s son Simon Mamcia Zangen, his wife Mirel Kanner and both their sons Menda and Oskar have survived the Shoah. All others have been killed in the Shoah.
All members of the Zangen family arrived around 1920 from Rozwadow via Vienna in the Netherlands where they lived in Scheveningen. Per 1 January 1921 Israel Jacob and his elder brother Samuel Schachna lived with their mother Reizel Zangen-Araten at Rotterdamschestraat 6 in Scheveningen. Then, in 1922, mother Reizel moved to Middelburgsestraat 69 and in 1924 to Leuvenschestraat 31 and Israel Jacob and his brother moved along with their mother too.
During the Census of 1920/1921, Israel Jacob Zangen was registered in the Population Register of The Hague and on 10 June 1926 he has been naturalized and received the Dutch nationality. On 9 June 1928 he married in Vienna Anna Nebenzahl, a daughter of Chaim Nebenzahl and Judes Steinbach.
On 13 July 1928 he moved from Leuvenschestraat 31 to Brugschestraat 2 in Scheveningen, where his wife joined him when she arrived 17 July from Vienna. In 1931 they left for Belgium where Israel Jacob Zangen and his wife Anna Nebenzahl arrived 31 December 1931 at Egelantierlaan 81 in Wilrijk, municipality of Antwerp and later they move to Varenlaan 37 in Antwerp. Israel Jacob Zangen was a diamond merchant by profession.
On 10 October 1942, Israel Jacob Zangen and his wife Anna were deported from Mechelen to Auschwitz with convoy 12. The Germans started to compile this convoy already on 26 September 1942 which was only completed by 6 October, when 1000 people had been “registered” for transport. Between 6 and 9 October, a 13th convoy was put together and combined with the 12th. On 10 October the two transports departed with 1674 deportees.
In Kozel, about 80 km west from Auschwitz, this comined Belgian convoy stopped, where 356 men between 15 and 50 were forced to leave the train to be employed as forced labourers in the surrounding sallite camps of Auschwitz. They, who remained in the train were transported onwards to Auschwitz, where on arrival the main part of the women and girls were immediately killed in the gas chambers. Only 116 men and women were registered in the camp of whom only 54 were alive at the time of liberation.
When Israel Jacob Zangen was deported, he was about 43 years of age and belonged possibly to the group of deportees, who had to leave the train in Kozel. It is therefore not known when and where exactly Israel Jacob Zangen has lost his life, nor of his wife Anna Zangen-Nebenzahl. However, according to the tranportlists of “Caserne Dossin” from Mechelen, both would have been killed in Auschwitz/Birkenau.
Sources among others: Municipal Archive of Den Haag, family registration cards of Reizel Zangen-Araten and Israel Jacob Zangen; website Geni.com/Mendel Zangen; Felix Archive of Belgium/ Foreigner Archive of Wilrijk for Israel Jacob Zangen; Yad Vashen database Shoah victims and the Memorial of the deportation of Belgian Jews, page 27.