Isaac van West, the eighth of the nine children of Salomon van West and Betje Lelie, was born in Amsterdam on 21 August 1891. Like his father, he was a florist and merchant by trade. On 2 August 1917 he married Alida de Rood, a daughter of Hartog de Rood and Naatje Kesner. Alida was born in Amsterdam on 29 December 1895
The Van West-de Rood couple had three children, viz. Vogelina in 1918, Hartog in 1920 and Anna Bertha in 1923. They were born in the Rijkskweekschool for Midwives in Amsterdam. Their home address was then 1e Oosterparkstraat 136. Later they moved to Jan Pieter Heijestraat 70, Falckstraat 1 and Swammerdamstraat 44. However, the marriage of Isaac and Alida did not last and on 6 May 1925 the marriage was dissolved by divorce.
On 23 January 1926 Isaac moved in with his father Salomon van West, who lived on the Nieuwe Heerengracht 26, 2nd floor, but on 25 May 1927, Isaac van West left Amsterdam for Berlin. Since then, nothing further is known about him.
His ex Alida de Rood remarried Herman Molenkamp in 1932 and survived the war. Her children, Vogelina, Hartog and Anna Bertha van West lived with her, even when she remarried. A daughter from Herman Molenkamp's first marriage also lived with them: Wilhelmina Cornelia Molenkamp. Their address from 1932 was Buiten Brouwersstraat 19 down floor, but they moved to Binnen Brouwersstraat 19 1st floor, at the end of May 1940 to Jan van Galenstraat 215 II and in January 1940 to Haarlemmerplein 46 I in Amsterdam.
However, Vogelina, Hartog and Anna Bertha became victims of the Nazis. Hartog and his sister Anna Bertha were deported from Westerbork to Sobibor on 18 May 1943. Vogelina followed later; she was deported to Sobibor on 13 July 1943.
What happened next with them, when the sisters and brother Van West arrived there, is not entirely clear. From notes on their registration card of the Jewish Council, which were written on it after the war, it appears that even on 8 November 1943, "information was received from Sobibor about all three, that they would have been shot there in October 1943". That would mean that after arriving, they were not immediately murdered in the gas chambers.
If that is correct, it woud mean that Hartog and his sister Anna Bertha would have been selected for “forced labour” in the camp upon arrival in Sobibor on 21 May 1943. The same also has happened to Vogelina after her arrival there on 16 July 1943 - however, where they were put to work and what they were forced to do is not known.
From that note, it could be further deduced that Hartog, Anna Bertha and Vogelina van West were involved and/or participated in the uprising in Sobibor that broke out on 14 October 1943 among the ± 600 prisoners. Twelve SS men and two guards were killed by the revolters. Between 300 and 400 prisoners tried to flee. Many were killed by mines, were shot or later discovered and shot during manhunts.
Presumably, the latter was the fate of Hartog, Anna Bertha and Vogelina van West. After the war, the Ministry of Justice ordered the Municipality of Amsterdam – partly on the basis of the testimonies of the few survivors of the uprising – to issue official death certificates, in which it was established that Vogelina van West has died on 31 October 1943 in Sobibor and that Hartog van West and Anna Bertha van West have died on 30 November 1943 in Sobibor.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family registration cards of Isaac van West (1891), archive cards of Alida de Rood (1892), Herman Molenkamp (1894) and Vogelina, Hartog and Anna Bertha van West; Amsterdam birth certificates of Vogelina van West (no. 7419) and Hartog van West (no. 5991); the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Isaac van West and Vogelina, Hartog and Anna Bertha van West; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten uit Nederland.nl/18 May and 13 July 1943) and the death certificates, drawn up in Amsterdam: for Vogelina van West no. 322 dated 2 June 1950 from the A-register 36-folio 44verso; for Hartog and Anna Bertha van West nos. 252 and 251 dated 23 May 1950 from the A-register 34-folio 44 and 43verso and the website Netwerk Oorlogsbronnen (War Sources).