Jesaja Lissauer was born in Amsterdam on 26 October 1842 as the son of Jacob Abraham Lissauer and Sara Barend Voddekoper. He was a cantor and pastor/confidant in the Vinkebuurt synagogue, located in Amsterdam-Old West. He passed at the age of 54 in his home at Muiderstraat 8 in Amsterdam on 27 August 1896 and was interred on 30 August 1896 in the Jewish Cemetery at Muiderberg.
Jesaja Lissauer was married twice. His first marriage took place, when he was 28 years old, on 14 June 1871 in Amsterdam to 35-year-old Dina Joseph Prijs, a daughter of Joseph Abraham Prijs and Saartje Barend Voddekoper. Dina, who was born on 6 February 1836 in Amsterdam, had six children with Jesaja, two of whom were murdered during the Holocaust; the four other children all died before the war, some of them at a young age. The six children from this first marriage were:
Sara, born 29 April 1872, died 7 February 1897. Then Celina, who was born 6 July 1873; she died 15 October 1905. Then there was Jacob, born 15 June 1874; he lived only 2 months and died on 28 May 1874. Rachel was murdered in Auschwitz on 26 February 1943 when she was 67 years old; she was born on 29 August 1875. Carolina was born on 23 March 1877 but died after 5 months on 26 March 1877. The sixth child of Isaiah and Dinah was Clarance, who was born on 16 May 1878 and also during the Shoah murdered in Auschwitz, together with her sister Rachel on 26 February 1943.
Dina Joseph Prijs passed away at the age of 46 in Amsterdam on 21 October 1882 and was interred two days later in the Jewish Cemetery at Muiderberg on 23 October 1882. The 40-year-old Jesaja Lissauer subsequently remarried on 6 October 1883 with the 24-year-old Recha Büttenwieser in the German town of Rimpar, located in the German state of Bavaria. Rimpar was part of the Würzburg district. She was a daughter of Simon Büttenwieser and Bella Sahlheimer and was born on 21 December 1858 in Beerfelden, Hessen, Germany. Nine children were born from this second wedlock, namely:
Simon on 21 December 1884 – died 15 September 1889, aged 4. Then Jacob Abraham on 28 December 1886; he was murdered in Sobibor on 2 July 1943. Then there was Isabella on 13 March 1888; she was also murdered in Sobibor on 7 May 1943. Then Carolina was born on 2 June 1889, who was also murdered in Sobibor on 4 June 1943. Followed by Dina, born on 2 June 1890, she died young on 4 June 1895. Then came Joseph Arjé, who was born on 22 October 1892 but perished in Bergen Belsen on 27 January 1945. Then Bernard on 10 May 1894, but he died on 5 May 1897. Sophia was born on 13 April 1895, but died on 1 June 1926 and the last child of Isaiah and Recha was Salomon, born on 7 June 1896, but he also died after a few months later on 17 September 1896.
Jesaja Lissauer passed on 27 August 1896. A total of fifteen children were born in Jesaja’s two families, four of whom had died before Jesaja’s death and another five after his passing. At the time of her husband's death, Recha had just given birth to her 9th child (Salomon) two months earlier and was now all alone to run the family; she decided, given the circumstances, to place three children in orphanages.
On 11 December 1896, 7-year-old Carolina was sent to the Dutch Israelitic Girls Orphanage at Rapenburgerstraat 171 and on 4 August 1897, 9-year-old Isabella followed. 9-year-old Jacob Abraham was taken to the Dutch Israelitic Boys Orphanage at Amstel 21 on 20 November 1896. The children stayed there for about 10 years; when they left the orphanages, Carolina was 18 years and Isabella and Jacob Abraham were 19 years old. Meanwhile Jacob Abraham had been called up to be medical examined for the National Militia, but was disapproved on 18 December 1905 due to minor defects.
The widow Recha Lissauer Büttenwieser passed away in Amsterdam on 17 November 1918, aged 59, and she was interred in the Jewisch Cemetery at Muiderberg on 19 November 1918. The six children from Jesaja Lissauer's 1st and 2nd marriage, who were still alive at the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, were all murdered during the Holocaust in Auschwitz, Sobibor or perished in Bergen Belsen.
Sources include the website stenenarchief.nl/record 59278 Jesaja Lissauer; website Akevoth/search additional database Muiderberg starting with P/Dina Prijs; website stenenarchief.nl/record 31914 Recha Büttenwieser, spouse of Jesaja Lissauer; the City Archive of Amsterdam/closed family registration cards with Jesaja Lissauer; Militia register Amsterdam/Jacob Abraham Lissauer; Special Registers Amsterdam/Ditch Israelitic Girls Orphanage Rapenburgerstraat 171/Carolina and Isabella Lissauer.