Albert Sanders was born on 13 May 1904 at Plantage Parklaan 28 in Amsterdam. His parents were Joseph Sanders (1844) and his 2nd wife Rachel Polak (1871). Albert went to work at the “Municipality Tram Company” of Amsterdam and was appointed on 1 June 1934. On 1 July 1935 he was appointed as an “office official” and on 1 January 1938 he was given the rank of clerk.
Meanwhile, on 27 November 27, 1935, Albert had married in Amsterdam the non-Jewish Mathilde Wilhelmina Lenssen from Heinzberg, Germany, who was born there on 24 December 1912 as the daughter of Anton Lenssen and Josephine Bredimus.
After the marriage was concluded, they moved into living accommodation at Anthonie van Dijckstraat 3, 3rd floor in Amsterdam-South, but moved afterwards still several times: on 7 September 1939 to 1e Ceramstraat 9, 1st floor, where their son Peter Thorwald was born on 1 June 1940.
In April 1941 a short "trip" to Arnhem followed and in May the family returned to 1e Ceramstraat 9, but during the same month they moved to the Castorplein 18 ground floor, located in the “Tutti-frutti district” in Tuindorp Oostzaan. On 9 December 1941 they moved back to the city and were registered at Sarphatistraat 140, 1st floor. (the street that was renamed Muiderschans by the Germans).
It is worth mentioning that Albert Sanders had 13 half-brothers and sisters; these were Eva, Philip, Rachel, Hartog, Joel, Aaron, Henriette, Meijer Sientje, Gerrit, Rosaline, Duifje and David Sanders. All born from the 1st marriage of his father Joseph Sanders, who was born in Arnhem on 28 January 1844 and was married Annaatje van der Molen on 5 February 1862 in Amsterdam, a daughter of Hartog Gerrit van der Molen and Eva David de Vries.
Of these half-brothers and sisters, Eva (Amsterdam, 31 July 1862 – Sobibor, 28 May 1943) and Gerrit (Amsterdam, 6 May 1879 – Amsterdam, 4 December 1940) are listed as war victims on the Jewish Monument. Three children survived the war, 5 children died before the war and 3 children left for London at a young age.
Annaatje van der Molen died on 13 August 1900, aged 59; she was interred at the Muiderberg Jewish Cemetery, after which his father Joseph Sanders remarried Rachel Polak on 5 March 1903 in Zaandam. She was born on 2 November 1871 in Amsterdam, the daughter of Eliazer David Polak and Annaatje Plotske. Albert's father died on 27 May 1908; He was 64 years old at the time and was also interred at the Jewish Cemetery in Muiderberg.
When the Germans invaded the Netherlands, they started introducing anti-Jewish measures at the end of 1940 and 1941. One of these was that Jewish civil servants in the Netherlands had to be dismissed at the end of November 1940. Jews who worked for the government, in the police and courts and as teachers lost their jobs. This dismissal takes place on the orders of the German occupier. A month earlier, all Dutch civil servants had had to sign an “Aryan declaration”. With this they declared whether or not they were Jews. This way their managers knew who could be fired. Almost all civil servants have signed the statement.(source: Anne Frank Foundation website – Dutch language only) and from January 1941 onwards, all Jews in the Netherlands were obliged to register with the then established Jewish Council.
On 28 February 1941, Albert Sanders was sacked as an official at the Amsterdam Municipality Tram Company. To support himself, he became a janitor at a HBS, but it is not known which school that was. In December 1941, the Sanders family moved to Sarphatistraat 140, 1st floor, renamed Muiderschans by the Germans during the war.
On 7 November 1942, Albert Sanders was arrested and carried off to Westerbork, from where he was put on transport to Auschwitz on 10 November 1942. The fate of Albert Sanders is generally described too in the addition “More about the transport ov 10 November from Westerbork to Auschwitz”, findable in this same record.
It is deduced from the Red Cross publication "Auschwitz III" regarding the transport of 10 November 1942 that, unless it appears otherwise in individual cases, and taking into account the general conclusions stated, that the men who disembarked from the transport of 10 November 1942 in Cosel, generally are considered to have died after 13 November 1942, but no later than 31 March 1944, in one of the labor camps in Silesia (Poland). As far as Albert Sanders is concerned, see his death certificate 283 of 18 January 1948.
According to a surviving witness, one C. Rood from Lepelstraat 8 in Amsterdam, Albert Sanders died in the External Labor Command Gleiwitz in Poland in January 1943. The Municipality of Amsterdam drew up a death certificate on 18 September 1948 (no. 283) in response to an additional decision of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal of 14 April 1948 against everyone, in which it is recorded that Albert Sanders, a caretaker by profession, died in January 1943 Gleiwitz, Poland.
After the war, in the context of legal restoration, as appears from data stated on Albert Sanders' Pension Card, that in contrast to the unjustified dismissal as a Jew from government service, he was considered to have been employed from 1 March 1941 to 15 January 1943 (at that time presumed date of death), to have been employed as a civil servant by the Amsterdam Municipality Tram Company.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Joseph Sanders (1844) and Albert Sanders; archive cards of Rachel Polak (1871), Albert Sanders (1904) and Mathilde Wilhelmina Lenssen (1912); website stenenarchief.nl/graves of Annaatje van der Molen and Joseph Sanders; Rick Hoogervorst (user of the website)/photograph memorial plaquette Amsterdam Municipality Tram Company and Pension card of Albert Sanders; Aryan declaration and dismissal from government service/from“Ondergang volume 1, edited 1965 by Dr. J. Presser, up from page 26 (Dutch language only); the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Albert Sanders; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten from the Netherlands/transport of 10 November 1942; death certificate no. 283 of 18 September 1948 for Albert Sanders, made out in Amsterdam and the archives of the Red Cross, publication “Auschwitz III” edited Octobed 1952, deportation transport in the Cosel period.