Wolf Vos was the eldest of the eight children of Hijman Vos and Lea van West. He was born in Amsterdam on 8 February 1879 and he was a diamond worker by trade. Wolf Vos married Henriëtte van Leeuwen in Amsterdam on 14 April 1904, who was born there on 20 September 1879 as a daughter of Lion Manus van Leeuwen and Rebecca Dressau. The couple had four children; three of them were born in Amsterdam, namely Lion in 1904, who however died already early 1905 only six months ould. Then Hijman who was born on 23 June 1907 and on 16 December 1908 again a son who was named Lion. On 11 Febuary 1913 their daughter Lea was born in Borgerhout (Antwerp).
Sometimes Wolf Vos was on his own in Belgium, where he was working as a diamond polisher, as his wife stayed behind in Amsterdam with the children. Already since August 1908 Wolf Vos went to Antwerp to earn a living. He lived among others in the Provinciestraat 188 in Antwerp, where on 18 January 1909 also his wife and sons Hijman and Lion arrived. From there they moved to Deurne and Borgerhout, where in 1913 their daughter Lea was born. Up from 1 April 1914 the family lived at Rolwagenstraat 84 in Borgerhout.
When Henriëtte returned to Amsterdam, she lived per 1 November 1924 at Hertzogstraat 6 down floor, where later also her son Hijman with his wife Elizabeth de Metz and their daughter Henriëtte came to live. Wolf Vos remained in Belgium, where he lived successively in Deurne and Borgerhout and where he worked in the diamond factory of Willebroeck in the Larmornièrestraat 51-53.
Wolf’s residence permit for Borgerhout was valid till 25 February 1940; he then lived in the Julius van Beylenstraat 3 but returned to Amsterdam where he moved into a house on 19 June 1940 in the Transvaalstraat 124 3rd floor in the East Amsterdam. His wife Henriëtte then lived already in the Hertzogstraat 6 down floor, where also her son Hijman lived with wife and child but per 4 March 1943 Henriette moved to Cilliersstraat 3 2nd floor, where her daughter Lea lived with her non-Jewish husband Jan van Wijk.
During the raids of early October 1942, Wolf Vos was arrested and carried off to Westerbork, where he arrived somewhere between 3 and 5 October. Because at the same time the Jewish labour camps were also liquidated by the Germans and the forced labourers were sent to Westerbork too, it was a great chaos there. It took until 19 October till Wolf Vos was put on transport to Auschwitz. On arrival there on 22 October 1942 he was immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Since March 1943, Henriette Vos-van Leeuwen lived at Cilliersstraat 3 2nd floor in Amsterdam, where also her mixed-married daughter lived. However, Lea was arrested and carried off to Westerborn on 4 June 1943, but has been released there again on 14 July 1943. Due to that she survived the war.
At the other hand, it is known that her mother Henriette has been deported to Sobibor already one month earlier but unkown is when she was arrested and “why” (betrayed or arrested during a raid). Also unknown is when she was brought to Westerbork but no doubt that must have been somewhere in April 1943. And it appeared also that in the file cabinet of the Jewish Council that there is no registration card of her findable. But with many others, the name of Henriette Vos-van Leeuwen occurs on a transport list Westerbork-Sobibor dated 4 May 1943 as “Nachtrag zum Normaltransport”- addition to a normal transport. This transport departed with in total 1187 deportees who were all immediately killed in the gas chambers of Sobibor upon arrival there on 7 May 1943.
Sources include the Felix archive of Antwerp/dossier of foreigners of Antwerp 128556 for Wolf Vos, dossiers 5923 and 478 of Borgerhout regarding Wolf Vos; the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Wolf Vos, archive cards of Wolf Vos, Henriette van Leeuwen and Hijman, Lion and Lea Vos; Residence cards of Amsterdam for Hertzogstraat 6 down floor and Cilliersstraat 3 2nd floor; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Wolf Vos; the Wikipedia listing of jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the book Extermination camp Sobibor by Jules Schelvis/transport list of 4 May 1943.