Henriette van Zanten, a daughter of Samuel van Zanten and Johanna Hartog, was born in Amsterdam on 13 July 1894. She married Jacob Mok in Zaandam on 15 August 1918, a son of Hijman Philip Mok and Heintje Deetas. Jacob was born in Haarlem on 12 December 1883. Henriette and Jacob had a daughter Henny, who was born in Amsterdam on 21 October 1919. The marriage however did not last and was dissolved by divorce on 15 February 1936.
Documents from the City Archive show that Jacob Mok has been unsubscribed from the Peoples Registry in Amsterdam on 27 August 1938, because of V.O.W. – (translated: Departed Unknown Where To), but from his certificate of death it appeared that his last residence was Den Haag, where up from August 1942 the first raids and deportations started. It turned out that Jacob Mok has been murdered in Auschwitz on 15 October 1942.
Henriette van Zanten remarried – on 24 February 1937 in Amsterdam to Leene van West (usually known as Levie van West), a son of Salomon van West and Betje Lelie. Leene was born on 17 December 1878 and lived at Van Baerlestraat 41 groundfloor, where he, as a florist, runned a flower shop. After the marriage was concluded, Henriette and her daughter Henny moved in with Levie at the Van Baerlestraat.
Levie van West was previously married to Rebecca Goudsmit, who was born on 25 September 1879 as a daughter of Levie Goudsmit and Hanna Vos, but she passed away already on 24 December 1924. She was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen. Levie married Rebecca on 19 December 1901 in Amsterdam and had with her three daughters, viz. Betje in 1902, Anna in 1904 and Greta in 1908, who all have survived the Holocaust. Levie van West himself however passed away shortly before the outbroke of the Second World War, on 13 March 1940.
After the passing of Levie van West, Henriette van Zanten and her daughter from her first marriage, Henny Mok, remained living at Van Baerlestraat 41 and they continued to run the florist business. After they were mandatory registered in 1941 at the Jewish Council, Henriette van Zanten became a house caretaker and provided assistance to non-Dutch Jews at the address Waterlooplein 119 on 19 April 1943. She had a “Sperre”, due the exemption from deportation from her living-in daughter Henny Mok, who worked for the Jewish Council at the Office for Aid to Departers, clothing supply and issuance of camp items at Oude Schans.
Henny Mok was an office clerk and a shorthand typist and had an gymnasium education (not complete) and had certificates for shorthand typing and English and German business correspondence. However, her exemption for deportation was cancelled, when the Germans organized a secretly prepared large scale rain on 20 June 1942, where about 5500 Jewish inhabitants of Amsterdam were arrested and carried off to Westerbork. Also Henny Mok was one of the victims and in Westerbork she was locked up in the penal barrack 66. Three days later, on 29 June, she was put on transport to Sobibor and upon arrival there immediately murdered in the gas chambers on 2 July 1943.
On 26 August 1943, also Henriette van Zanten was arrested and carried off to Westerbork where she too has been locked up in the penal barrack 67. Possibly she has made efforts to go into hiding after her daughter was caught on 20 June, reason why she ended up in the penal barrack on 26 August. On 31 August she was deported to Auschwitz where she was murdered immediately in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau after arrival on 3 September 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Jacob Mok and Henriette van Zanten, archive cards of Henriette van Zanten, Henny Mok, Levie (Leene) van West and Betje, Anna and Greta van West; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Henriette van West-van Zanten and Henny Mok; website wiewaswie/wedding Mok x Van Zanten; the Wikipedia website Raid 20 June 1943; the certificate of death C33 made out in Den Haag for Jacob Mok on 5 January 1951 and for Levie van West, nr. 372 from the register 3-folio 63 nr. 372, made out in Amsterdam on 13 March 1940 and the Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl