Isak Elkan van Polen was the eldest of the two sons of Izak van Polen and Eva van Berg. He was born in Amsterdam on 22 July 1905. After 6 years of primary school, Izak Elkan completed a 3-year course at a business school, became an office clerk in a paper trade and later a traveling salesman and wholesaler of paper products.
He was also approved for the National Militia; he was conscripted into the Antiaircraft Artillery Corps on 5 February 1925, was sent on long leave and called up again several times, and on 15 June 1938, during reorganization, he was reassigned to the 1st Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment.
Isak Elkan married Roza Polak, a daughter of Isaac Polak and Bloeme Kijzer, on 16 August 1928 in Amsterdam. Roza was born on 10 September 1902 at Hemonystraat 41 in Amsterdam. The Van Polen-Polak couple had no children.
After Isak Elkan and Roza Polak were married, they lived for a long time at Weesperstraat 11, 1st floor, where Isak Elkan's uncle, Abraham de Hes, also came to live. Between April 1923 and March 1938, also his brother Benjamin Israël lived in with Isak Elkan and Roza. His brother was still unmarried in those years and worked as a paper goods traveler for his brother. After March 1938, Benjamin moved in with his father, who then lived with Isidor Goudsmit at Zuider Amstellaan 14 ground floor.
Meantime, Isak Elkan and Roza were living at Zuider Amstellaan 243 2nd level in Amsterdam's River district when, after the mandatory registration with the Jewish Council in 1941, they were still obliged to move to Paardekraalstraat 6, located in the Transvaalbuurt of Amsterdam East. Roza Polak was “gesperrt bis auf weiteres” – exempted from deportation until further notice, by the Jewish Council; she had been given a position in the bread supply and for this purpose received a “Sperre” with number 92747, a number that belonged to the actual Jewish Council numbering/stamps. Persons with such high exemption numbers were eventually deported at the end of September 1943 when the Jewish Council was dissolved, unless they had previously tried to avoid deportation by e.g. into hiding.
How Roza Polak managed to escape deportation is unknown, but it is known that she survived the Shoah. She eventually died on 15 May 1961 in Amsterdam. But according to notes on Isak Elkan van Polen’s registration card of the Jewish Council, her husband was carried off to Westerbork on 23 August 1942 and deported to Auschwitz the next day, 24 August 1942.
It is unknown why Isak Elkan was not “gesperrt”, (exempted from deportation) just like his wife Roza. On the other hand, the note “Sch” on his Jewish Council card, as the same also appears on the card of his brother Benjamin Israel, suggests that those letters mean “Schutzhaft” - preventive detention - also known as "administrative detention". Apparently they were both "displeasing" to the Germans, were arrested together and immediately sent via Westerbork to Auschwitz.
This transport contained a total of 519 deportees, most of whom probably had responded to the call for the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz”. When the deportation train two or three days later arrived at Auschwitz, Isak Elkan van Polen was undoubtedly selected for forced labor, although it is not known where he ended up or what he had to do. The conditions in Auschwitz were inhumane, harsh and “camp life” was terrible, causing many to quickly lose their lives due to hardship, illness or otherwise.
After the war, this was initially not very well known. Nevertheless, the Dutch Ministry of Justice, partly based on post-war research by the Red Cross, has determined that Isak Elkan van Polen no longer could be alive after 30 September 1942. The Municipality of Amsterdam was then instructed to draw up a death certificate for him, which states that Isak Elkan of Poland died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
When parts of the “Sterbebücher of Auschwitz” - the death indexes - were recovered a few years ago, it turned out that Isak Elkan van Polen actually was murdered in Auschwitz on 5 September 1942. However, the website Joods Monument currently publishes only the legal date of death, as published in the Dutch Government Gazette at the time.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Izak van Polen (1872), family registration card and archive card of Isak Elkan van Polen (1905); Militia register Amsterdam/Isak Elkan van Polen; birth certificates of Roza Polak nr. 10867year 1902 and of Isak van Polen no.8522/year 1905; various Amserdam residence cards; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Isak Elkan van Polen and Roza van Polen-Polak; website Museum and Memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau/Auschwitz prisoners/Isak Elkan van Polen and the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/transport 24 August 1942.