Sophia Rosetha Roos was a daughter of Jozeph Roos and Rosa Alexander. She was born in Ambt Hardenberg on 18 December 1896. She was unmarried and chose "nursing" as her profession. Her father (1850) died in 1918 and her mother (1862) in July 1935. Both parents were interred in Hardenberg.
Sophie had only one brother, Martijn Levie Roos, who was also born in Hardenberg on 20 September 1898. However, in 1923, the also unmarried Martijn was admitted as a patient in the "Apeldoornse Bos" and became a victim of the evacuation of the psychiatric hospital by the Germans from 21 to 22 January 1943 and the subsequent deportation to Auschwitz, where Martijn Levie Roos was murdered on 25 January 1943 at the age of 44.
Sophie Rosetha Roos (known colloquially as Fie) arrived in Amsterdam from Ambt Hardenberg on 3 June 1918 and found accommodation at O.Z. Voorburgwal 158, where she had a room with S. Groenheim. Those days, she worked as an office clerk. On 11 December 1919 she moved to Tilanusstraat 59 where she lived in with S. Levie.
However, on 21 March 1923 she entered service as a student nurse at the P.I.Z., the Portuguese Israëlitic Hospital and Old Women's Home in the then Plantage Franschelaan 8-10-12 (the later Henri Polaklaan). On 14 December 1925 she moved to Plantage Kerklaan 19, where she found accommodation in Huis Muller, but on 8 February 1927 she moved back to Plantage Franschelaan 8-10, with no. 10 mainly being used as a convent.
She stayed there until 25 June 1929, and then left the convent for Kromme Mijdrechtstraat 74, where she lived together with her Romanian colleague, student nurse Rosalie Mokrauer, who had also been employed by the P.I.Z. since 30 April 1927, but had not lived in the convent since 20 June 1928. Sophie Rosetha Roos lived at Kromme Mijdrechtstraat for 6 years, but moved to Nicolaas Maesstraat 120 on 30 September 1935, where she lived in with Alfred Barchrach, and where she stayed until April 1942.
Then she moved to Merwedeplein 44 ground floor in the River district of Amsterdam, after which she moved to Zuider Amstellaan 42 3rd floor in June 1942. On 29 June 1943, Sophie was working as a nurse at the C.I.Z., the Central Israëlitic Hospital at Jacob Obrechtstraat 92. The three Jewish hospitals in the city, the P.I.Z. at Plantage Franschelaan (Henri Polaklaan), the N.I.Z. at Nieuwe Keizersgracht and the C.I.Z. at Jacob Obrechtstraat were completely evacuated after several German raids in August 1943.
At the time of the mandatory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands, Sophie Rosetha Roos was registered with the Jewish Council at the address Jacob Obrechtstraat 92, the C.I.Z. where she was probably also an “intern” as a nurse. However, the Amsterdam City Archives show that Sophie’s last address as of 11 February 1944 was again the P.I.Z. at Plantage Franschelaan 8-10.
As a nurse, Sophie was undoubtedly “gesperrt” by the Jewish Council, i.e., provisionally exempted from deportation until further notice, although no mention of a Sperre was made on her present registration cards from the Jewish Council. However, in the summer of 1943, Sophie did receive the very last exemption from deportation, the so-called “Aushahme Bescheinigung”. She obtained this as a nurse from the P.I.Z. Nurses from the N.I.Z. also received such an exemption. Because of this very last exemption, Sophie was exempted from deportation until 30 September 1943. As of that date, the Jewish Council no longer existed; everyone had been deported and Amsterdam was declared “Judenrein” by the Germans.
What happened to Sophie between 30 September 1943 and 11 February 1944, the date that she lived again at Plantage Franschelaan 8-10, is unknown. It is clear that her stay there lasted only about four months, because on 19 June 1944 she was arrested and taken to Westerbork and housed in barrack 85. On 26 July 1944 Sophie wrote an extensive letter to her “distant cousin 7th degree” Calmer Julius Roos and his wife Grietje Burgij (Bobje) who lived on the Weteringschans in Amsterdam and on 29 July 1944 she sent them another last postcard.
On 31 July 1944 Sophie was put on transport to Theresienstadt in a transport of only 213 people. Post-war research has shown that Sophie was transported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz on 16 October 1944, where she was murdered immediately after arriving in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau on 18 October 1944.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family cards of Sophie Rosetha Roos, archive card Sophie Rosetha Roos, Special Registers Amsterdam/Portuguese Israelite Hospital and Old Women's Home with Sophie Rosetha Roos (and Rosalie Mokrauer); Residence cards Amsterdam/Plantage Kerklaan 19 - House George Muller -, Kromme Mijdrechtstraat 74 and Nicolaas Maesstraat 120; website Jewish Amsterdam, concerns the P.I.Z., the N.I.Z. and the C.I.Z.; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Sophie Rosetha Roos and the Wikipedia website Joden transporten from the Netherlands.nl.