Sara van West, the sixth child of Hartog van West and Bloeme van West, was born in Amsterdam on 28 November 1903. She was a seamstress by trade, unmarried and lived untill her deportation at her parental home at 2e Boerhaavestraat 13 3rd floor,. It was also the last known address where her mother lived, widowed from Hartog van West since 1937 and where also Sara’s cousin Schoontje van West lived, a daughter of her uncle Emanuel van West, who as a widower of Heintje Prins, emigrated to South-Africa in 1930.
Early May 1943, Sara van West was arrested and carried off to concentration camp Vught in the night of 6 to 7 May. As a seamstress, she has been put to work as a ready-made clothing-stitcher with the Elion command (or company). On 15 November, she was deported from Vught Auschwitz in a direct transport with in totaal 1149 deportees and arrived in Auschwitz on 18 November 1943. There, Sara was selected for forced labour again, but it is not known what kind of “work” she had to do, nor the exact date of her death there or elsewhere.
After the war, the Dutch Authorities determined, partly on the basis of testimonies of survivors and research, that Sara van West no longer could be alive after 31 January 1944. Subsequently, the Municipality of Amsterdam was instructed to draw up a certificate of death for Sara van West, which states that Sara van West died on 31 January 1944 in Auschwitz or somewhere in the vicinity of Auschwitz.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Bloeme van West, family registration cards of Hartog van West and Emanual van West, archive card of Sara van West; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Sara van West; website archives ITS Arolson/camp card Vught Sara van West; Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the certificate of death nr. 526 dated 7 Sep 1951 from the A-register-folio 89verso-made out in Amsterdam for Sara van West.