Jacob Wolff, the only son of Abraham Wolff and Judith Bloemhoff, usually called Japie, was born on 2 Decembet 1925 in Amsterdam. Jacob lived with his parents in Eemsstraat 31 parterre but notes on his registration card from the Jewish Council show that in 1943 he probably moved to Afrikanerplein 28 in Amsterdam East, where the family of Isaäc van Straten and Rosette Wijnschenk lived at that time.
Japie was "exempted from deportation " (“gesperrt”) by the Jewish Council; from 15 August 1942 he had a job as a messenger at the Jewish Council and more particularly he worked at the Expositur, luggage and order department at Jan van Eyckstraat 15 in Amsterdam. Because of his “Sperre”, his parents were also exempt from deportation for the time being.
Yet his father Abraham Wolff was arrested early October 1942 during the big raids in Amsterdam and taken to Westerbork. After many requests to postpone deportation, he finally was allowed to stay until his mother, Judith Bloemhof arrived in Westerbork too. She was arrested during the secretly prepared raids of 20 June 1943. Both were deported together on 13 July to Sobibor where they were immediately killed on arrival on 16 July 1943.
Jacob Wolff was eventually taken to Westerbork on 29 September 1943, where he ended up in barrack 64. On 8 February 8, 1944, Jacob was deported to Auschwitz with more than 1000 others. The transport arrived there on 10 or 11 February 1944 where the 18-year-old Jacob has been selected to be employed as a forced laborer, inside or outside the camp.
It is not known on what date and exactly where Jacob Wolff lost his life, reason why after the war the Dutch Ministry of Justice ordered the municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a certificate of death for Jacob Wolff in which has been established that he died on 30 June 1944 in Mid-Europe.
Sources include: Amsterdam City Archives, archive cards of Abraham Wolff, Jacob Wolff and Judith Bloemhof; residence card of Afrikanerplein 28; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Jacob Wolff and his death certificate no. 236 from register A97-Folio 41 dated 26 September 1952.