Nantes Buitenkant was born in Amsterdam on 23 September 1863 as a son of Isaac Nantes Buitenkant and Eva van Praag. He married Klaartje Snijders in Amsterdam on 1 June 1898, who was born there on 29 December 1866 as a daughter of Isaac Marcus Snijders and Betje van Praag.
Nantes Buitenkant was a member of the ANDB – the Algemene Nederlandse Diamantbewerkers Bond – (General Dutch Diamond Workers Association): he was a brilliant polisher and sawyer. On 1 July 1899 he joined the Union as a member of branch 1 and on 5 January 1907 of branch 2. On 16 April 1923 Nantes was definitively deregistered as a member. In the period between 1899 and 1923 he was temporarily deregistered due to unemployment in February 1902 and in May 1916, however in November 1903 and in July 1916 he was reregistered as a “new member”.
The Buitenkant-Snijders couple had five children, viz. Isaac on 20 April 1899, Betsy on 1 March 1900 but she died already a few days later on 4 March 1900, on 11 August 1901 Juda was born and again followed a Betsy on 25 September 1902 and on 5 July 1908 the youngest daughter Eva was born, who however passed away on 21 June 1929 in Amsterdam. The family lived at Weesperstraat 7 in Amsterdam.
Their eldest son Isaac was married in 1931 to Amalia Hemelrijk. In 1937 and 1938 Amalia's father and widower Moses Hemelrijk had lived in with them at the Geleenstraat and at Zuider-Amstellaan. However, they moved on 18 June 1940 to the Van Lijndenlaan 10 in Naarden, but from the addresses as listed on their Jewish Council registration cards, it appeared that they were registered at Marnixstraat 407 in Amsterdam, presumely forced relocated in 1942 to Amsterdam by order of the Germans. Shortly after, Isaac and Amalia moved in with Nantes Buitenkant and Klaartje Snijders in the Weesperstraat 7.
Both Isaac and Amalia were exempted from deportation because of function and due to that it was possible that the parents Nantes Buitenkant and Klaartje Snijders, with whom they lived in, were exempted from deportation “bis auf weiteres” too! Isaac had a function at the Jewish Council distribution department of bread but per 23 December 1942, he was the administrator at the department vegetable distribution. Also Amalia was exempted from deportation because of function of her husband. She too was employed with the Jewish Council at the department HAV (Hulp Aan Vertrekkenden) – (assistance to departers) at the Reguliersgracht in Amsterdam, where she was a short-hand typist of the German language.
On 17 May 1943 Nantes Buitenkant and Klaartje Snijders were arrested in Amsterdam and carried off to Westerbork, were they were housed in the hospital barrack 83. Both were already of age: Nantes was 79 years and Klaartje 76 years old. Soon after their arrival, both have died in Westerbork: Nantes Buitenkant on 31 May 1943 and his wife Klaartje Snijders on 6 June 1943. They were subsequently cremated and the urns with their ashes were interred in the Jewish Cemetery of Muiderberg.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Nantes Buitenkant and Moses Hemelrijk, archive cards of Nantes Buitenkant and Klaartje Snijders; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Nantes Buitenkant, Klaartje Buitenkant-Snijders, Isaac Buitenkant and Amalia Buitenkant-Hemelrijk and additions of visitors of the website.