Sara Vos was a daughter of Hijman Vos and Lea van West. She was born on 5 March 1889 in Amsterdam and married Marcus Zwaaf in Zaandam on 4 July 1918. He was a son of Hartog Zwaaf and Mietje Goldsteijn, who was born in Amsterdam on 27 November 1891. Marcus was an upholsterer and a merchant in haberdasheries. The Zwaaf-Vos couple had three children, namely Elisabeth in February 1918, Lea in June 1920 and Emilie in 1923. All three the daughters have survive the Holocaust.
On 19 March 1927 the Zwaaf family was registered in Borgerhout at the address Turnhoutse Baan 288, where they stayed till 23 November 1927. Then they moved to Lange Pothoekstraat 100 in Borgerhout. The family has still lived in Borgerhout for some time, returned to Amsterdam from where they moved to Den Haag in November 1930 and in July 1934 to Antwerp again, where they found housing in the Marsstraat 55 in Berchem.
In the night of 28 to 29 August 1942 big raids in Antwerpen were held, whereby also Marcus Zwaaf and his wife Sara Vos were arrested. They were taken to Caserne Dossin in Mechelen were they have been registered with prisoners number 969 and 970. On 1 September 1942 they were deported with the 7th convoy from Mechelen to Auschwitz with 1000 deportees and on 3 September, the convoy arrived in Auschwitz.
The 7th convoy was a so-called Kozel transport too, where during a stop at the Kozel freight station, 187 men between 15 and 50 year were forced to leave the train to be deployed as forced labourers om surrounding labor camps. Marcus Zwaaf then was 51 years of age but it is unclear whether he has been put to work at some place as forced labourer or that he was transported onwards to Auschwitz together with the remaining women and children in the train.
Of Marcus and Sara no official death certificates have been found. But the Belgian Official Gazette shows that on May 27, 1949 in Antwerp, a claim was brought before the Court of the First Instance, seeking a judicial declaration of the death of Marcus Zwaaf, born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands on November 27, 1891, son of Hartog and van Mietje Goldsteijn, traveling salesman by profession, husband of Sara Vos, presumably died in Auschwitz in Germany between 1 September 1942 and 1 June 1945, last housed in Berchem in the Marsstraat 55.
On the same date, also a claim was brought before the Court of the First Instance, seeking a judicial declaration of the death of Sara Vos, born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands on March 5, 1889, daughter of Hijman Vos and Lea van West, wife of Marcus Zwaaf without a profession, presumably deceased in Auschwitz in Germany between September 1, 1942 and June 1, 1945, last housed in Berchem, Marsstraat 55.
Based on the court decision regarding the presumed death of Marcus Zwaaf and Sara Vos, the date of 1 September 1942 was taken as the official date of death on the Jewish Monument and Marcus and Sara were included in the NDVS, the National Database of Prosecution Victims.
Sources include the Felix Archive, Dossier of foreigners of Borgerhout no. 995#2016 for Marcus Zwaaf, dossier of foreigners no. 197175,image 966-984 from Antwerp for Marcus Zwaaf; the Amsterdam City Archives, Population register 1874-1893 and the Closed family registration cards; the Municipal Archives of Den Hag, family registration cards of Marcus Zwaaf; the Memorial of the Deportation of the Belgian Jews, pages 23 and 24 and the Gazette of Belgium, presumption of death of Marcus Zwaaf under no. 12335 and Sara Zwaaf-Vos under no. 12336 by the Antwerp Court of the First Instance.