Alexander Polak, born 31 March 1893 in Amsterdam, diamond polisher by trade, was a son of Jozef Polak and Colette Booleman. He married Hanna Leeda on 4 March 1913 in Berchem (Antwerp), a daughter of Gideon Leeda and Hendrika Levi. The couple had one daughter, namely Colette Hendrika, born 25 August 1913.
Alexander Polak travelled several times from Belgium to Amsterdam and back. For the first time he arrived in Belgium in November 1901, with his parents Jozef Polak and Colette Booleman at Rue des Alouettes 54 in Antwerp (today named Leeuwerikstraat), and with his elder brother Judas.
Alexander stayed in Antwerp till 1913; then he moved to Berchem where he married and stayed with his wife Hanna at Drie Koningenstraat 61 till Otober 1914. Then he left again for Holland and ended up in Rotterdam at Nieuwe Kerkstraat 21a and moved 2 June 1915 to Vrolikstraat 149 in Amsterdam. Later again to 1e Oosterparkstraat 96 1st floor.
Back in 1919 in Antwerp, Alexander lived with his wife and daughter at Wipstraat 57, and later on in Borgerhout, where his wife Hanna Polak-Leeda has died 16 June 1941.
Alexander Polak was deported from Mechelen to Auschwitz on 8 September 1942 with convoy VIII (8). This transport with 1000 deportees arrived 10 September 1942 in Auschwitz, after it has made a stop at Kozel, were 281 men between 15 and 50 year were forcedly leave the train to be employed in the surrounding labor camps. They who remained in the train were transported onwards to Auschwitz where at least 634 persons were killed that same day on arrival there. “They undergo the special SS-action, precisely on 10 September, as the SS-doctor who cooperated on it in his diary”
It is not known where and when the 48-aged Alexander Polak had lost his life. It could be possible that he was killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz that 10th of September 1942, but he may also have belonged to the group of 281 men, who were employed in the labor camps in the Kozel region. The exact place and date of his death are unknown.
Sources among others: The Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, nr. 101974, images 379-388; certificate of death for Hanna Polak-Leeda, made out by the City of Antwerp on 20 June 1941 and the Memorial of the deportation of the Belgian Jews, page 24 and 419.