Isaac van Gigh, born 29 Decembe 1891 in Rotterdam, was a son of David van Gigh and Wilhelmina Catharina Bril. He was a greengrocer. On 10 March 1926 he married Henderijntje van der Sluijs in Rotterdam, woh was born there as daughter of Isaac van der Sluijs and Catharina de Leeuw. The Van Gigh's had no children.,
Since 10 August 1926 they lived at Boschlaan 12 in Rotterdam, where they also runned their vegetable shop. During the bombardment of Rotterdam in May 1940, their house got lost; they found new housing at Boomgaardstraat 100-4 elsewhere in the centre of Rotterdam.
Between 3 and 5 October 1942, Henderijntje van Gigh-van der Sluijs has been carried off to Westerbork, where her husband arrived a few days later, on 7 October 1942. Both were put on transport to Auschwitz on 16 October 1942.
The transport of 16 October 1942 was a so-called “Kozel-transport”; the train stopped at the station of a place called Kozel, located ± 80 km west from Auschwitz, where of the total group of 1710 deportees, 570 boys and men between 15 and 50 years of age were forced to leave the train, to be deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labor camps of Auschwitz. They, who remained in the train, were transported onwards to Auschwitz, to be killed there. Also Henderijntje van Gigh-van der Sluijs met that fate: on arrival there on 19 October 1942, she was immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Iaac van Gigh also belonged to the group of 570 men who were forcedly taken from the train. It appeared only in 2015 that he eventually has ended up as Jewish forced labourer in the "Reichs Autobahnlager St. Annaberg” in Upper Silesia in Poland. After the war, it was known that Isaac van Gigh 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 Municipality of Rotterdam had drawn up a certificate of death for Isaac van Gigh, in which was established that he has died on 31 August 1944 in Mid Europe.
However, during a 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 Isaac van Gigh. This document showed that he has died 31 December 1942 in labour camp St. Annaberg. On the death certificate is mentioned as an official cause of death as “gangrene and pneumonia right side” (Gangraen und rechtsseitige Lungenentzündung).
By establishing the date of death of Isaac van Gigh however, the official Dutch date of death and place of 31 August 1944 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 Rotterdam, family registration cards of Isaac van Gigh, the wedding of Van Gigh/van der Sluijs of 10 March 1926 in Rotterdam; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Isaac van Gigh and Hendrina (Henderijntje) van Gigh-van der Sluijs; the wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit nederland.nl, additions of visitors of the website and Edward Haduch, Kedzierzyn-Kozle (Poland), the death certificate of Isaac van Gigh from the Peoples Registry (Standesamt) Annaberg.