Rebecca Polak was a daughter of Mozes Polak and Mietje Velleman. She married Salomon Arpels on 29 December 1915 in Amsterdam, a son of Pinehas Arpels and Sientje Vijevano. The couple had three children, of whom two have survived the Shoah. Her daughter Mietje however was killed in the Holocaust: on 10 September 1942 her life was taken in Auschwitz. Also Rebecca and her husband Salomon lost their lives in the Shoah: on 5 September 1942 were both registered in Westerbork, deported to Auschwitz on the 7th and upon arrival there on 10 September 1942, even with their daughter Mietje, immediately killed.
Rebecca’s sister Regina was married in 1917 to Salomon’s brother Izak Arpels. However in 1921 he left his family and went to Antwerp. Since then Regina lived alone with her son Pierre in Amsterdam, while Izak Arpels cohabited in Antwerp with a non-Jewish woman. Also he has been killed in Auschwitz: he was deported from Mechelen with Convoy XXI on 19 July 1943 and presumably killed immediately upon arrival in Auschwitz on 21 July 1943. Rebecca’s sister Regina was killed in Auschwitz on 21 January 1943 and her son Pierre, married on 22 April 1942 to Lena de Groot, was killed on 30 September in Auschwitz, together with his newly wed wife.
City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Rebecca Polak, Salomon Arpels and Mietje Arpels; The file Cabinet of the Jewish Council of Amsterdam, record of Rebecca Arpels-Polak; the Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, dossier nr. 169823 and the website www.wiewaswie.nl.