Henriette Polak, no profession, born 31 July 1877 in Den Haag as a daughter of Lion Polak and Helena Polak, married at the age of 49 years on 20 July 1926 in Antwerp to the 56-year old Polish diamondpolisher Lazer Lifschitz, born 22 October 1870 in Krakow as son of Samuel Lifschitz and Brucha Weil. No offspring were born from this marriage
Lazer Lifschitz, then still unmarried, arrived the first time in Antwerp in 1889. He provided for his maintenance as diamond worker and lived at various addresses in Antwerp, Borgerhout and Berchem. The Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, nr. 157935 shows that Lazer Lifschitz stated in New York to be married in 1903 to Ida Cohane, who was born ±1870 in Krakow.
After the couple have lived at Colvestone Cresent 86 in London too, Lazer and Ida arrived 15 March 1911 in Borgerhout (Antwerp), where they lived at Sanderusstraat 6. On 10 january 1914 they moved to Lange Winkelhaakstraat 27 in Antwerp. Howver, in April 1919 it appears that Ida Cohane resides in New York when Lazer Lifschitz moves from Montensstraat 29 in Borgerhout to Van Leriusstraat 24 in Antwerp.
Whether Ida Cohane has died, or that she has been divorced from Lazer Lifschitz, is unknown. However, when Lazer had the intention in 1926 to marry Henriette Polak from Den Haag, at his request a research was conducted to that marriage certificate in the archives of the Manhattan District of New York but on 25 May 1926 Lazer Lifschitz received notice from the Department of Health in New York that in the archives no marriage certificate on his name had been found.
Henriette Polak arrived in Antwerp on 28 July 1926 and married Lazer Lifschitz there on 31 July and lived with her newly wed husband at Loosstraat 60 in Antwerp. In 1929 and 1930 the couple stayed in Johannesburg in Transvaal (South Africa), from where they returned in Antwerp on 7 November 1930. They were registered then at the address De Coninckplein 7. On 11 September 1931 Lazer Lifschitz appeared to be out of work and a Declaration of Inability showed that because of that he received a weekly support of Bfrs.100. They then lived together in a furnished room at Lange Winkelhaakstraat 55 in Antwerp.
When it Lazer economically went better, they moved to Van Schoonhovenstraat 86 in Berchem and on 9 February 1936 they moved again within the municipality to Van Vaerenbergstraat 7. On 10 Februry 1937 they were unsubscribed from the Peoples Registry of Berchem because of their removal to Antwerp City, where they ended up at Provinciestraat 128 3rd floor.
The first anti-Jewish measures in Belgium were taken by the Germans from October 1940 and six months later, on 31 May 1941, again, even stronger measures came into force. Partly because of this, it was made impossible for Lazer Lifschitz to provide in his maintenance and in December 1941, he and his wife Henriette Polak received again a Declaration of Inability, confirming that the City of Antwerp supported them weekly with Brfs.126.
Not long after that Henriette Polak became a widow when Lazer Lifschitz passed away in Antwerp on 9 February 1942. The Swedish Consul, responsible for the protection of Dutch interests in Brussels declares on 30 June 1942 “that Henriette Polak, widow of Lazer Lifschitz holds Dutch nationality according to the law of 12 December 1892”, after which she was registered again in the Peoples Registry of Antwerp as main tenant of the address Provinciestraat 128 3rd floor.
On 14 September 1942, Henriette Lifschitz-Polak was deported with convoy X (10) frm Mechelen to Auschwitz. This 10th convoy was one of the transports, for which persons to be deported were called. It could only be completed because of the systematically held big raids in the Antwerp metropole, conducted ty the SS-Sicherheitsdienst, the Flemish SS and the Feldengendarmerie on 11 and 12 September, whereby presumably also Henriette Lifschitz-Polak was arrested and taken to the collection- and transit camp Caserne Dossin in Mechelen.
The 10th convoy with 1048 deportees in total, arrived 17 September 1942 in Auschwitz. 331 persons were registered in the camp, of whom only 17 were alive with the liberation of the camps. The other 717 persons, among them presumably also Henriette Polak, were on arrival there immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. According her certificate of death 1955/B115 however, made out by the City of Antwerp on 21 February 1955, her date of death was officially established as at an unknown place on 15 September 1942.
Sources among others: The Dossiers of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, nrs. 68268, images 854-895 and 157935; certificate of marriage nr. 1643 for Lazer Lifschitz and Henriette Polak from Antwerp; Official information bulletin from the City of Antwerp, nr. 798 of 23 February 1942 regarding the death of Lazer Lifschitz on 9 February 1942; certificate of death 1955/B115 for Henriette Lifschitz-Polak and the Memorial of the Deportation of the Belgian Jews, page 25.