Isidore Brandon was the first of the four children of Joseph Brandon and Klaartje Roe. He was born on 1 December 1900 at Blasiusstraat 114 in Amsterdam East. He had two more sisters and a brother; Estella was born in 1902, followed by Jacob in 1905 and Margaretha in 1907. His brother Jacob, with his wife and daughter, took their own lives on 15 May 1940 “under pressure of circumstances”. Estella and Margaretha, as well himself and his parents, were murdered during the Shoah.
On 18 December 1929, Isidore - 29 years old - married 30-year-old Eva Breemer in Amsterdam; she was born in Amsterdam on 21 November 1899 as daughter of Salomon Breemer and Veronica Breemer-Cohen Bromet, who had died before the war.
After the marriage was concluded, Isidore and Eva moved into a house at Waverstraat 84 2nd floor, but moved to the 3rd floor of house number 70 in May 1935. Isidore and Eva had a son on 14 November 1930, named Salomon, and Isidore, employed as a traveler in display items, was able to support his family sufficiently.
Isidore Brandon was sentenced to prison in 1942 for “listening to prohibited radio stations” and on 7 November 1942, taken to and registered in Westerbork, where he ended up in barrack 71. On 10 November, he was deported to Auschwitz in a transport of 758 people. (read: Lawsuit Sondergericht)
The train made a stop in Cosel, a town located ±80 km west of Auschwitz, where 180 men between the ages of 15 and 50 were forced to leave the train; they were then put to work in the surrounding labor camps of Upper Silesia. Those who remained on the train were transported further to Auschwitz and after arrival murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In the story “More about the transport of 10 November 1942 from Westerbork to Auschwitz” one can read what generally happened to the 180 men and what their fate was, including Isidore Brandon. However, it is unclear where Isidore ultimately ended up, in which labor camps and what his activities were. His exact date and place of death are also unknown.
After the war, the Dutch Authorities adopted the conclusions of the 1952 investigations by the Dutch Red Cross, as well as testimonies from survivors. That conclusion was: Unless it appears otherwise in individual cases and taking into account the general conclusions stated, the men who disembarked in Cosel must be considered to have died after 13 November 1942, but no later than 31 March 1944, in one of the labor camps in Silesia (Poland).
On this basis, the Ministry of Justice instructed the municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate, recording that Isidore Brandon died on 31 March 1944 in Central Europe.
His wife Eva Breemer and son Salomon Brandon were arrested on 7 May 1943 and taken to the Vught concentration camp. A month later, on 7 June 1943, mother and 12-year-old son Salomon, van Vught, were deported via a stopover in Westerbork, where they stayed in barrack 58 until the next day, 8 June 1943, with the so-called “kindertransport” (children’s transport) to Sobibor, where all (3017 children and supervisors), upon arrival on 11 June 1943, were immediately murdered in the gas chambers. There were no survivors from that transport.
Sources include the City Archives of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Joseph Brandon and Isidore Brandon; archive cards of Isidore Brandon, Eva Breemer and Salomon Brandon; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Isidore Brandon, Eva Brandon-Breemer and Salomon Brandon; websit ITS Arolson/camp cards Vught of Eva Brandon-Breemer and Salomon Brandon; birth certificate 13874 from Amsterdam of 3 December 1900 for Isidore Brandon; death certificate 161 of 11 January 1952 from the A-register 92-folio28v for Isidore Brandon; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/10 November 1942 en 8 June 1943 and the archives of the Red Cross, publication “Auschwitz III", deportation transports during the so-called Cosel period, edited October 1952.