Salomon van Handel, warehouse clerk, born on 4 March 1862 in Rotterdam, was a son of Machiel van Handel and Rosetta Brandel. He married there on 31 August 1887 Elizabeth David, a daughter of Hartog David and Hendrika van der Sluijs. She was born in Rotterdam on 7 February 1863. The couple had four children, namely the twin Rosetta and Hendrika, who were born on 30 October 1888, followed by Machiel on 6 January 1890 and the last one was Hartog on 6 January 1894.
The twins however died already shortly after their birth: Rosetta on 27 January 1889 and a few days later Hendrika on 31 January 1889. Machiel van Handel married Betje Rooselaar and had three children with her, of whom one died as a baby of 26 days old in May 1915. Both other children and the parents survived the Holocaust. The youngest of Salomon and Elizabeth’s children, Hartog van Handel (1894) was married to Klaartje Sanders and they had two children of whom the youngest survived the Holocaust. Hartog, his wife and their eldest son Salomon Charles van Handel (1918), were killed in Auschwitz.
Elizabeth van Handel-David passed away on 31 January 1938 in Rotterdam and she was interred in the Jewish Cemetery Toepad there. Her spouse, Salomon van Handel had been taken to Westerbork in October 1942 and already deported to Auschwitz on 2 November 1942. On arrival there on 5 November 1942, he was immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, at the age of 80 years.
As a result of the many raids of early October 1942, a great number of Jewish victims from those round-ups were brought to Westerbork and the closing down of the Jewish Labour camps at the same time with all forced labourers taken to Westerbork too, caused a rather chaotic situation in Westerbork.
Even after Salomon van Handel had already been killed one month before in Auschwitz, the administration in Westerbork was still hopelessly rushing behind: So was established on 19 December 1942 that Salomon van Handel would have been placed on the V-list of veterans and Palestine veterans, or that he already was on that list; On 23 December it appeared that he was “Not Present” in Westerbork; on 28 December again was referred to that V-list and 29 December 1942 it appeared again that Salomon van Handel was “Not Present” in Camp Westerbork. Based on inquiries with the Jewish Council of Rotterdam, they reported on 31 December 1942 that he might be staying in the hospital of Westerbork or in the hospital of Groningen and on 8 January 1943, it is definitively established that Salomon van Handel no longer stayed in Westerbork.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card of Salomon van Handel; certificate of death nr. 487 dated 1 Feb 1938 for Elizabeth David and certificate 536 of 2 Feb 1951 for Salomon van Handel; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Salomon van Handel, Machiel van Handel, Betje Rooselaar, Salomon Charles (1916)- and Emile van Handel en van Hartog van Handel, Klaartje Sanders, Salomon Charles (1918)- and Wilhelmina van Handel.