Isaac Boeki, on 14 July 1919 in Anderlecht, was a son of Wolf Isaac Boeki, who was born 21 February 1890 in Rotterdam and of Judith Stad from Antwerp, born there 24 May 1893. As far as could been researched, Isaac Boeki was unmarried.
Isaac had another brother and two sisters: a more than 4 year younger sister Sara, who was born 15 December 1915 in Amsterdam; a 7-year younger brother Joël, who was born 19 September 1926 in Brussels and an even younger sister Willy, born 6 December 1934 in Luik.
Since he Isaac was born, Isaac and his parents have moved several times; 24 August 1927 from Brussels to Rotterdam: the family lived there at Stationsweg 14b, per 25 November 1927 at Nieuwe Binnenweg 320c; then followed another removal to Crooswijkscheweg 148a but on 7 April 1928 the family has been officially de-registered from the Rotterdam Population Register to Paris. They returned from Paris 3 September 1928, however to Den Haag, where they lived at Gedempte Burgwal 28 but again after some weeks, on 29 September 1928 they were de-registered from Den Haag to Paris again.
It is not known how Isaacs parents fared. It might be possible that Wolf Isaac Boeki and his wife Judith Stad have died before the outbroke of the war or perhaps they survived the Shoah. Of Isaac’s brother Joël is not known too whether he might have survived the Holocaust or not.
However, both his sisters Sara and Willy Boeki were deported 15 january 1944 from Mechelen to Auschwitz with convoy XXIII (23). The Memorial of the deportation of the Belgian Jews made mention of the following details of this transport:
The 23rd transport is a Jewish transport, including 662 persons, among them 62 children. 5 prisoners will escape before the border and one of them has been shot on the spot. The listing of persons for this convoy began since 22 September 1942. Till 10 January the average number of registrations in Mechelen sank till 6 per day. Of the remaining 657 deportees of the 23rd convoy, on arrival on 17 January 1944, 420 persons were immediately sent to the gas chambers and 237 prisoners were registered in the camp. Eventually, only 97 persons survived on 8 May 1945.
The 23rd convoy arrived 17 January 1944 in Auschwitz. It is not known whether Sara and Willy were selected in the group of 420 or 237 persons. Their exact date and also place of death is not known.
Isaac Boeki self was deported 20 September 1943 with convoy XXIIa (22A) from Mechelen to Auschwitz and arrived 22 September 1943. Of this transport the Memorial of the deportation of the Belgian Jews mentioned the following:
The 22nd transport A was a so-called “normal” transport. The letter A – of the German word Ausländisch (foreign) – meant that this convoy was only for Jewish foreigners. According the deportation program, drawed up in summer 1942, up from June 1943 no Jewish foreigners were allowed in Belgium anymore. This however was not realized. It was more and more problematic to arrest Jews as they had already a year or more experience in going into hiding. Since the depart of the 21st convoy per 31 July 1943, only 639 persons were caught and arrested for the 22nd convoy of 20 September. Despite precautionary measures, 8 deportees would escape before the border.
Convoy 22A has been merged with Convoy 22B, which was only for Jews of Belgian nationality. In total, both convoys included 1425 deportees who were transported to Auschwitz and on arrival 22 September 1943, 875 persons were immediately sent to the gas chambers. 550 persons were registered in the camp and eventually there were only 51 survivors on 8 May 1945. Isaac Boeki presumably lost his life in Auschwitz but the exact place and date are not known.
Sources among others: City Archive of Rotterdam, Population Registers and registrations of Wolf Isaac Boeki; the Municipal Archive of Den Haag, family registration card of Wolf Isaac Boeki and the Memorial of the deportation of the Belgian Jews, pages 32, 33 and 120