Retje Leon Beek, born in Den Helder on 3 August 1858, was a daughter of Leon Jacob Beek and Eva Manheim. She was the youngest in a family of in total ten children. The family came from Den Helder. Of the eldest, Simon, who was born in 1845, no date and place of death is known. The children Jacob and Roosje passed away already before their 2nd year of life: Jacob was 16 months old and Roosje only 6 months. All other children, namely Philip, Joachim, Meijer, Jansje, Aron and Izaak have died before the Second World War, i.e. between 1913 and 1935. Only Retje Leon Beek was killed during the Shoah.
Retje Leon Beek married in Den Helder on 23 February 1881 the 24-year old Philip Lazarus Vrieslander from Den Helder, a son of Lazarus Hijman Vrieslander and Esther de Beer. The Vrieslander couple had four children, of whom the eldest, Esther Philip Vrieslander died at the age of 42 in Den Helder, probably unmarried. The other three daughters were all murdered during the Holocaust: Eva and Flora on 7 September 1942 in Auschwitz and Jansje on 28 May 1943 in Sobibor.
Retje Leon Beek became widowed on 14 May 1932. Her husband Philip Lazarus Vrieslander died in his birthplace Den Helder and was interred on 16 May 1932 in the Jewish Cemetery there. The youngest daughter Jansje was already married to the cattle dealer Mozes Wolf from Oss in 1914 and lived no longer home. Eva and Flora however were unmarried and lived with their mother in Den Helder at Nieuwe Brugstraat 2, until they moved in June 1942 to Plantage Kerklaan 23b in Amsterdam.
Retje Leon Beek was taken from Amsterdam to Westerbork on 4 February 1943, from where she was put on transport to Auschwitz on 16 February 1943. On arrival there on 19 February 1943, she was immediately killed. She then was 84 years old.
Sources among others: City Archive of Amsterdam, discarded family registration cards 1892-1920, archive cards of Retje Leon Beek, Eva Vrieslander and Flora Vrieslander, Amsterdam residence card of Plantage Kerklaan 23b; website hetstenenarchief.nl, grave Philip Lazarus Vrieslander; website openarchieven.nl, wedding Jansje Vrieslander to Mozes Wolf and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Retje Leon Beek.