Jacob Lap, born 12 June 1898 in Amsterdam, was a son of Marcus Lap and Debora Juda and besides working as diamond worker, he was also an office clerk by profession. On 6 January 1927 he married in Amsterdam Marianne Waterman, born 3 July 1899 in Amsterdam as daughter of Levie Waterman and Leentje Speijer. After his wedding in 1927 the Lap-Waterman couple lived at Tolstraat 97 2nd storey in Amsterdam-South and they had no children.
Jacob Lap’s parents had died already before the war, his mother already in 1908. He was born into a family with in total nine children, of whom one sister died at the age of 14 in 1914, one brother immigrated in Cape Town in 1929 and one brother survived the Holocaust; he was liberated 23 April 1945 near Tröbitz. All other members of the Marcus Lap family and their families have been killed during the Shoah.
Marianne Waterman’s father Levie was killed in Sobibor. His first wife Leentje Speijer died 14 July 1899 in Amsterdam and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen and his second wife Ribca Zomerplaag was killed in Sobibor, together whith her husband. And just as in the first marriage of Levie Waterman, there were born again two children in second wedlock. Of the four Waterman children only one surived the Holocaust; the others were killed in the Shoah.
Of the two crucial events of early October 1942, one concerned the fate of Jacob Lap and his wife Marianne: there was the “emptying” of the Jewish Labour Camps in the Netherlands by the Germans on the night of 2 to 3 October 1942, whereby all Jewish forced labourers were taken to Westerbork on Yom Kipur to then to be deported “to the East”. The other fact was that large-scale raids took place at the beginning of October 1942, during which thousands of Jews ended up in Westerbork between 3 and 5 October 1942, who all were intended to be put on transport to labour- or extermination camps.
It is unclear whether Jacob Lap ended up in Westerbork from a Jewish Labour camp in the Netherlands or whether Jacob and his wife have been arrested in Amsterdam during the early October raids and taken to Westerbork. Archive research made it clear that they both were in Westerbork on 3 October 1942 and were deported to Auschwitz on 5 October 1942.
The transport of 5 October 1942 contained more than 2000 deportees, including the first forwarding of the 10.000 men from the Jewish Labour Camps. The train made a stop at Kozel, a place located ± 80 km west from Auschwitz, where 550 boys and men between 15 and 50 years of age were forced to leave the train. They were all deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labour camps of Auschwitz. However, those, who remained in the train were transported onwards to Auschwitz to be killed there, among them also Marianne Lap-Waterman. On arrival there on 8 October 1942 she was killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau .
Jacob Lap also belonged to the group of 550 men who were forcedly taken from the train. It appeared only in 2015 that he eventually ended up as Jewish forced labourer in the "Reichs Autobahnlager St. Annaberg” in Upper Silesia in Poland. After the war, it was known that Jacob Lap had not survived the Shoah, but not where, when and under what circumstances he had lost his life. Therefore, on order of the Ministry of Justice after the war, the City of Amsterdam had drawn up a certificate of death for Jacob Lap, in which was established that he has died on 31 August 1943 in Mid Europe.
However, during the research in 2015 in Poland to victims of among others the labour camp “Reichs Autobahnlager St.Annaberg” in Upper Silesia, several certificates of death were found, including those of Jacob Lap. This document showed that he has died 13 December 1942 in labour camp St.Annaberg. On the death certificate is mentioned as official cause of death “gangrene and body decay” (Gangraen und Körperverfall).
By establishing the date of death of Jacob Lap however, the official Dutch date of death and place of 31 August 1943 in Mid Europe is maintained, a juridical date and place established after the war by the Dutch Department of Justice.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Marcus Lap, family registration card and archive card of Jacob Lap, archive card of Marianne Waterman; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Jacob Lap and Marianne Lap-Waterman; website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland; and Edward Haduch, Kedzierzyn-Kozle (Poland),the certificate of death of Jacob Lap from the Peoples Registry (Standesamt) Annaberg.