Rachel van West was one of the five children of Levie van West and Margaretha de Metz. She was born in Amsterdam on 4 September 1877.Her other sibs were Esther, born 3 October 1872, married to David Koekoek; Mauritz, born 10 July 1875 in Amsterdam; Alexander born 25 July 1879 in Amsterdam and Henriette, born on 7 December 1884 also in Amsterdam, who was married to Abraham Daniëls.
Rachel’s parents, Levie van West and Margretha de Metz had passed away already far for the outbroke of the Second Worl War: Levie van West died in March 1892 at the age of 45 and was interred 24 March 1892 in the Jewish Cemetery of Muiderberg. Her mother, Margaretha de Metz died in January 1921 and was interred 13 January 1921 in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen.
After the passing of her husband Levie, Margaretha left for Belgium on 23 October 1893, together with her children Rachel, Alexander and Henriette; they lived among others at the Keizerlei in Antwerp. Esther and Mauritz had left for Antwerp already one year earlier.
Rachel van West married in Antwerp on 31 July 1906 to Hendricus Jacobus Not, usually called Henri or Henri Jaak, a son of Johannes Franciscus Lambertus Not and Anna Maria Hendriks. They had a son together on 15 December 1907 named Fransicus Johannes Lambertus Not, usually called Frans. However, the relationship did not last and on 2 August 1918 the marriage was dissolved in Den Haag and registered there in the Civil Registry by a judgement rendered in absentia by the District Court of Amsterdam of 12 April 1918.
After the divorce, Rachel, her son and her mother lived in Amsterdam at various addresses but left again with her son to Belgium on 24 May 1922. Her mother returned to Antwerp already in March 1919, to Abraham Daniëls, who was married to her daughter Henriette van West. However Margaretha passed away in Amsterdam in 1921. Of Rachel’s son Frans, nothing is furhter known. Her ex died in Amsterdam on 17 June 1963.
Rachel van West lived among others at Ploegstraat 1 in Antwerp, at Kroonstraat 18 and at Turnhoutsebaan 46 in Borgerhout. She was employed as diamond worker with De Vries, factory Van Mierlo in the Borgerhoutsestraat in Antwerp and earned an average wage of Bfrs.100 – weekly. On 13 July 1936 she became a member of the Belgian Diamond Union, the ADB and was also re-subscribed as a member of the ANDB in Amsterdam, section 3. Rachel ended her memberships on 7 November 1939.
On 1 September 1942, Rachel van West was deported with Convoy VII(7) from Mechelen to Auschwitz. The compilation of the transportlist had already started on 19 August 1942, but too few people turned out to have heeded the call for “work expansion” in Germany. The number of Jews to be deported by the Germans was only reached after the Belgian police organized a large raid in the night of 28 to 29 August 1942, during which many were still arrested for “transport” to Germany.
The deportation train of the 7th Convoy, with over 1000 victims, left Mechelen for Auschwitz on 1 September and arrived there on 3 September 1942, where upon arrival at least 729 persons were murdered immediately in the gas chambers. In the end, only 96 persons were admitted and registered in the camp. On the way to Auschwitz, a stop was made at Cosel, where also 187 boys and men between 15 and 50 years were forced to leave the train; they were deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labour camps.
Rachel van West, 64 years old at arrival in Auschwitz, most likely belonged to the group of 729 persons, who were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau on 3 September 1942 immediately. Presumably, as an official certificate of death or declaration of death could not be traced. That is why on the Joods Monument the “place and date of death” is marked “unknown”, where normally only the place and date of death officially determined by the authorities is stated.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, Overgenomen Delen, period 1913 and 1930/Rachel van West, arvchive card Hendricus Johannes Not, family registration card of Rachel van West; Open Archieven/divorce Not/Van West in 1918 in Den Haag; Membership cards ADB and ANDB of Rachel van West 1936-1939; Dossiers of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, no’s 75582, 1120/376 and 105118; Portrait collection “Give them a Face/Caserne Dossin and the transport list dated 19 August 1942 with Rachel van West (no.536).