Levie Wertheijm was the natural son of Schoontje Wertheijm, who she has acknowledged as her son at birth on 24 September 1916. Only 9 years later, Schoontje married the docker and biological father Hartog Vogel, a son of Isaac Vogel and Trijntje Lubig. Hartog was born on 6 April 1893 and when he married Schoontje Wertheijm on 4 March 1925, he also acknowledged the already 8-year Levie as his son, and Levie then started to bear his father’s surname Vogel.
When Levie was born, his mother lived at Nieuwmarkt, where she was employed as a maid. His father Hartog Vogel then lived at Foeliestraat 38 and in 1922 he moved to Valkenburgerstraa 12. When he married Levie’s mother, they all moved into a house at Markenplein 1. After a number of different houses in the Valkenburgerstraat, they finally came to live in the back part of the 1st floor of no. 44 in the Rapenburgerstraat.
Levie earned his living as a factory worker. He still lived at home at Rapenburgerstraat 44 1st floor/back house, when he married Bloeme Krant in Amsterdam on 4 December 1940. After the marriage conclusion, they moved in with Bloeme’s parents, Samuel Krant and Margaretha Elisabeth Onclin, who then lived at Nieuwe Amstelstraat 12 ground-floor. When they moved to 1st Anjeliersdwarsstraat 1 2nd floor in the Jordaan neighborhood of Amsterdam, Levie and Bloeme moved with them too.
Bloeme’s father Samuel Krant was married to a non-Jewish woman. Samuel however was obliged to report on 20 May 1943 at the barracks of the Militairy Police at Polderweg in Amsterdam-East on the basis of a regulation by Rauter, that from 21 May 1943 no Jew was allowed to stay in Amsterdam, exeptions aside from that. He was taken on 20 May 1943 and carried off to Westerbork where he ended up in barrack 55. On his behalf a request was made 29 May to collect documents showing that he was mixed married to Margaretha E. Krant-Onclin. The favourable outcome was that Samuel Krant was discharged from Westerbork on 9 July 1943.
During the the mandatory registration of all the Jews in the Netherlands, factory worker Levie Vogel was registered as tailor and his wife Bloeme Krant, who was previously a cloak seamstress, as a milliner. Both were called-up on 19 July 1942 for the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz”, but for unknown reasons, they were exempted from deportation for the time being. Moreover, it has emerged that Levie’s parents have made attempts through Callmeyer to have him declared half-Jewish: Levie Vogel is said to have been the result of his mother’s relationship with a non-Jewish man.
That was all to no avail; on 29 June 1943 Levie Vogel and his wife Bloeme Vogel-Krant were arrested and carried off to Weseterbork. In barrack 62 the had to await their deportation, which followed on 7 September 1943 to Auschwitz, with another 985 deportees. The transport arrived in Auschwitz on 10 Septembe 1943.
Based on his age, then still 26 years, Levie Vogel was selected upon arrival to clear debris in the destroyed ghetto of Warsaw. All men between 16 and 51 years of the 7 September transport from Westerbork, ended up in Warsaw on 8 October 1943, where they died on or before 31 March 1944, according to a late determination by the Red Cross. Wielek describes in his book “The War that Hitler Won” on page 381 that the clearing of the destroyed ghetto took place under the most humiliating and bestial conditions and lasted until 28 July 1944.
At the beginning of 1944 a violent typhus epidemic broke out in the Jewish camp in Warsaw and as a result, many prisoners died, including many Jews from the Netherlands. According to a surviving witness, Levie Vogel would have been victim of this already early 1944. His exact date of death is not known, after which the Dutch Authorities determined after the war that he could no longer be alive after 31 January 1944. The Municipality of Amsterdam was then instructed to draw up a certificate of death for him, which states that Levie Vogel died on 31 January 1944 in Warsaw.
As a 22-year old woman without children, Bloeme Krant was selected “fit for work” upon arrival in Auschwitz on 10 Septembe 1943 too. She ended up with another 100 other women or more in Birkenau. Bloeme was no nurse, of which 30 were selected for the “Krankenrevier” and she had also no medical background. Therefore, no doubt she had to perform very heavy work in Birkenau, although it is not known what kind of work it was. The chances of life where therefore only about two months, and with exceptions aside, it must be assumed that they had died on 30 November at the latest.
The Dutch Authorities have established after the war, partly on the basis of research by the Red Cross and testimonies of survivors, that Bloeme Vogel-Krant no longer could be alive after 30 November 1943. The Municipality of Amsterdam then was commissioned to draw up a death certificate for her, in which is stated that she had died on 30 November 1943 in or in the vicinity of Auschwitz
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Levie Wertheijm (1856), Hartog Vogel; archive cards of Samuel Krant, Margaretha Elisabeth Onclin, Bloeme Krant and Levie Vogel; birth certificate for Levie Vogel made out in Amsterdam. No. 11164 dated 26 September 1916; website Open Archieven.nl/wedding certificate 110 of Hartog Vogel & Schoontje Wertheijm of 4 March 1925 including notes about the legalizing of Levie by Schoontje Wertheijm in 1916 and Hartog Vogel in 1925; Amsterdam Residence cards Nieuwe Amstelstraat 12/Samuel Krant and Levie Vogel and 1e Anjeliersdwarsstraat 1/Levie Vogel; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Levie Vogel, Bloeme Vogel-Krant and Samuel Krant; death certificates made out in Amsterdam for Levie Vogel no. 146 dated 29 Aug 1952 from register A96-folio26 and for Bloeme Krant no. 416 dated 10 Aug 1951 from register A83-folio 71; H.Wielek, “the War that Hitler Won, 1947, Amsterdams Courant Mij, page 381 and 382 and the Red Cross publication Auschwitz volume IV, edited October 1953 /re transports Westerbork – Auschwitz-Warsaw, especially 7 September 1943.