Aron Beek was one of the seven children of Izaak Leon Beek and Matje Mok and was born 12 March 1895 in Amsterdam. On 29 October 1925 he married Sara Canes in Amsterdam, who was born there 12 October 1892 as daughter of Abraham Canes and Marianne van de Kar. The couple had two children, namely Abraham in 1926 and Martin in 1929; they are killed during the Shoah, just like their parents.
After the wedding in 1925, Aron and Sara lived at Plantage Kerklaan 2 in Amsterdam, where also both their children were born. On 15 February 1938 the family moved to Retiefstraat 32 3rd floor in Amsterdam-East. Aron was commercial traveller in bicycles by profession.
It happened in 1942 that Aron Beek has been deployed in one of the Jewish Labour Camps in Northern Netherlands. He ended up in camp “De Beetse” in the South-East part of the province of Groningen. But on 2 October 1942, the Jewish labourers were carried off from there to Westerbork.
Son Abraham had a “Sperre” an exemption from deportation for the time being since he had this job at the “estafette”, the dispatch riders from the Jewish Council. He was a messenger at the H.A.V. department at Reguliersgracht 109, (H.A.V. means translated Aid to Departers), and had received his Jewish Council I.D. nr. 2081 on 8 July 1942, issued by the General Secretariat at Lijnbaansgracht 36 in Amsterdam.
Because of the Sperre of Abraham Beek, also his mother Sara Canes and brother Martin were exempted from deportation which was recorded on exemption list 8/26. However, they were all arrested during the large-scale raids in Amsterdam of early October 1942 and ended up on 3 October in Westerbork, Abraham, his mother and his brother.
The Aron Beek family now was “completed again” and they were put on transport on 5 October 1942 to Auschwitz. This transport contained 2012 deportees in total, among them the Aron Beek family and a large number of the Jewish forced labourers from the emptied Jewish Labour camps.
The transport made a stop in Kosel, located ±80 km west from Auschwitz. There 550 boys and men between 15 and 50 years old were forced to leave the train; they were deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding satellite camps of Auschwitz. It seems rather certain that Aron and his son Abraham were part of this group.
Those, who remained in the train were transported onward to Auschwitz to be killed there, among them Sara Beek-Canes and her youngest son Martin Beek. They arrived in Auschwitz on 7 October and were murdered in the gas chamber on 8 October 1942.
It is not known were Abraham Beek ended up when he was forced to leave the train in Kosel. Also not known is on which date exactly and where he lost his life. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice ordered the Municipality of Amsterdam after the war to draw up a certificate of death for Abraham Beek, in which has been established that he has died 31 March 1943 in Mid-Europe.
It seems rather certain that Aron Beek ended up in the Reichsautobahnlager Annaberg. From “Names from the Opole database: Card Catalog of the Deaths of Jews recorded by the Reich Statistical Office in Berlin held in the State Archive in Opole", it appeared that Aron Beek, born 12 March 1895 has died 12 December 1942 in Annaberg.
Just after the war, the above was still unknown, reason why the Dutch Ministry of Justice ordered the City of Amsterdam, to draw up an official certificate of death for Aron Beek too, in which was established that he has died on 31 March 1943 in Mid-Europe.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive cards of Aron Beek, Sara Canes, Abraham Beek and Martin Beek; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Aron Beek, Sara Beek-Canes, Abraham Beek and Martin Beek; website Joodse Werkkampen (Jewish Labor camps)/De Beetse; website Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database/death Aron Beek; certificates of death, made out in Amsterdam on 29 January 1954 for Aron Beek, Reg.A103-fol.2-cert.nr.3; for Abraham Beek, Reg.A103-fol.2-cert nr.2; for Sara Beek-Canes Reg.A103-fol.3-cert nr.7 and for Martin Beek, Reg.A103-fol.2v-cert nr.4.