Benjamin Droomer was the eldest of the five children of Nathan Droomer and Grietje Woudhuijsen and was born in Utrecht on 17 August 1917. He was a coat-presser by profession. On 17 April 1940 he married Jansje Naarden in Amsterdam, who was born in Haarlem on 2 February 1917 as daughter of Mozes Naarden and Lena Turfreijer. Benjamin and Jansje had no children.
Benjamin lived at home with his parents, who lived up from July 1935 at Nieuwe Achtergracht 106 1st floor in Amsterdam. When Benjamin was married to Jansje in 1940, she moved in whti the Droomer family, but already shortly afterward, they moved into an own house on 14 June 1940 at Retiefstraat 37 1st floor in Amsterdam-East.
It seems that also Benjamin and his wife Jansje had responded to the call for the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz”- the provision of additional work in Germany. With the fourth transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz Benjamin Droomer and Jansje Naarden were deported to the East on 24 July 1942, and on arrival in Auschwitz, about 26/27 July, they were selected to perform “labor”.
It is not known when exactly Benjamin and Jansje lost their lives in Auschwitz and under what circumstances. However it was known that the situation there was terrible, inhumane and full of hardship. Therefore the Dutch Ministry of Justice after the war ordered the Municipality of Amsterdam to draw up certificates of death for Benjamin Droomer and Jansje Droomer-Naarden, in which has been established that they have died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
With the date of 30 September 1942, it must be taken into account that this is a legal date, established by the Dutch government after the war, but that the actual date of death was not known at that time and may have occurred at an earlier time. From testimonies of survivors who were familiar with the circumstances there, it has been established that the date of 30 September 1942 should be read as “possibly still alive on 29 September 1942, but not later than 30 September 1942.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Nathan Droomer, Benjamin Droomer and Jansje Naarden; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Benjamin Droomer and Jansje Droomer-Naarden; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl; the archive Het Utrechts Archief, birth certificate of Benjamin Droomer and the certificates of death from the Amsterdam Archive for Benjamin Droomer A-register 47-folio 43verso, cert.248 dated 25 August 1950 and for Jansje Droomer-Naarden from the A-register 47-folio 76, cert. 444 dated 25 August 1950.