Betje Polak, daughter of Philip Polak and Aaltje Nathans, was killed in Auschwitz during the Shoah. According her registration card from the archive of the Jewish Council, she has arrived in camp Westerboerk on 3 October 1942, has been deported to Auschwitz on 5 October and on 8 October 1942 upon arrival there immediately killed. On the back of her registration card of the Jewish Council, an address for correspondence was taken down: it was of her father Philip Polak, who stayed presumably as a patient in the psychatric institution Port Natal in Assen. All patiens and staff have been deported on order of the german occupiers in 1943; her father was killed in Sobibor on 23 April 1943. Her mother was killed in Sobibor too, however already on 13 March 1943 and her brother Simon lost his life somewhere in Mid Europe on 31 March 1943.
Website www.wiewaswie.nl; archive of the Jewish Council, cards of Betje, Aaltje en Simon Polak; Encyclopedie Drente, https://www.geheugenvandrenthe.nl/licht-en-kracht and the history of Port Natal, http://www.portnatal.nl/Landgoed_Port_Natal/Geschiedenis.html.
The unmarried Betje Polak worked as saleswoman in the drapery of Izaâk van Dam in Zuidlaren.
H. Hamburger and J.C. Regtien, Joodse oorlogsmonumenten in de provincie Drenthe. Profiel (Bedum 1999) 34
Izaäk van Dam was the uncle of Betje Polak. Izaäk was married to the sister of the mother of Betje.
Addition of a visitor of the website
This person is commemorated on a memorial in Zuidlaren. More information on this memorial can be found (in Dutch) on the website of the Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei.