Nathan Engelsman, born 22 August 1894 in Amsterdam, was a son of Joseph Marcus Engelsman and Naatje Kwetsie. He married Judic van Lochem there on 16 August 1923, a daughter of Jacob van Lochem and Esther Rootveld, born in Amsterdam on 25 August 1897. The couple had two daughters, Eveline in 1926 and Esther in 1931.
Of the Engelsman family, the father Nathan Engelsman was carried off from the Jewish Labourcamp Diever B in Drenthe to Westerbork between 3 and 5 October 1942, but after an intensive correspondence, released again in January 1943, due to his “Sperre stamp” 64986 as diamond worker, which he received at the end of December 1942 on request of his employer, Messrs. Vilbach. On 18 January 1943, he could report again in Amsterdam “to get to work”. In Westerbork he was accommodated in barrack 85, where also the group of Barnevelders stayed.
Due to Nathan’s “Sperre”, the entire family was exempted from deportation for the time being. He was “indispensable” for the diamond industry and had that “diamond stamp”. But when in the summer of 1943 all stamps and exemptions were cancelled, also Judic Engelsman-van Lochem, Esther, Eveline and also their nephew Aäron Groen were arrested during the large-scale raids on 20 and 21 June 1943 in Amsterdam and carried off to Westerbork where they ended up in barrack 58.
On 10 July 1943, Eveline Engelsman was transported to concentration camp Vught, where she stayed till June 1944. She was a furrer and probably put to work at the fur- and clothing company Escotex in the camp. On 3 June 1944, together with the men and women from the Philips Command, she was put on transport to Auschwitz. Eveline eventually survived the Holocaust and returned from Sweden in Amsterdam.
But Nathan Engelsman, his wife Judic van Lochem, his daughter Esther and also their nephew Aäron Groen, were deported from Westerbork to Theresienstadt on 18 January 1944. From the nearly 5000 Jews who have been deported from the Netherlands to Theresienstadt, almost 3000 were transported onwards to Auschwitz, among them Nathan’s wife Judic, his daughter Esther and nephew Aäron Groen. They were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau on 7 July 1944. Nathan Engelsman however lost his life somewhere in Mid Europe on 28 February 1945.
Sources among others the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Aäron Groen, family registration cards of Jacob Raphaël Groen, Jacob van Lochem, Nathan Engelsman and Judic van Lochem; residence card of Danie Theronstraat 21 Amsterdam; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Aäron Groen, Nathan Engelsman, Judic Engelsman-van Lochem, Esther en Eveline Engelsman; website meeroverdeholocaust.nl-Theresienstadt; Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl; death certificates of Nathan Engelsman nr. 43 dated 1-7-1960 from Reg.A116-fol.8, for Judic Engelsman-van Lochem nr. 234 dated 24-3-1953 from Reg.A99-fol 44, for Esther Engelsman nr 73 dated 31-10-1952 from Reg. A98-fol.14 and for Aäron Groen dated 31-10-1952 from A-reg.98-fol.15v, nr 81.