The florist Abraham van West was born on 20 October 1885 in Amsterdam as a son of Salomon van West and Betje Lelie. He married on 14 August 1919 in Amsterdam Dina Berlijn, who was born on 6 March 1891 in Ede as a daughter of Jacob Levie Berlijn and Betta Fuldauer. The couple Van West-Berlijn had a son Jacob, who was born on 22 May 1920 and who later was employed as an office clerk.
Since the 1920s, the family lived at various addresses in Amsterdam and their last address was Quellijnstraat 140 downfloor. The Van West family was carried off to Westerbork on 22 September 1942, of whom their son Jacob had received a call for the so-called Arbeitseinsatz – the provision of additional work in Germany under police surveillance.
On 22 September 1942 Abraham van West, Dina Berlijn and their son Jacob were carried off from Amsterdam to Westerbork and on 25 September they were deported to Auschwitz in a transport of 928 deportees. Upon arrival there on 28 September the 56-year old Abraham and his 51-year old wife Dina were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The 22-year old Jacob however was selected for forced labor, but it is not known were he ended up and what kind of work he had to perform there. Also the exact date of his death is unknown. Therefore after the war, the Dutch Authorities have established, partly based on testimonies of survivors and research, that Jacob van West no longer could be alive after 31 January 1943.
The Municipality of Amsterdam then was commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to draw up a certificate of death for Jacob van West, in which is established that he had died in Auschwitz on 31 January1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Salomon van West (1856), archive cards of Abraham van West, Dina Berlijn and Jacob van West (1920); the Red Cross archives/transportlist Amsterdam-Westerbork of 22 September 1942; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Abraham van West, Dina van West-Berlijn and Jacob van West; the certificate of death for Jacob van West, made out in Amsterdam, nr. 86 dated 27 October 1950 from the A-register 57-folio 16 and the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.