Jacob Michel was born at Sint Antoniebreestraat 24 in Amsterdam on 19 September 1894 as a son of Friedrich Michel and Lena Reiwit. According to family tradition, he was a cheerful person, "a gay dog", usually ate at home and was unmarried. Jacob worked as a house servant, cigar maker and diamond cutter. He had been a member of the ANDB, the General Dutch Diamond Workers Union, since January 1914 and became a member of section 6 (rose adjusters) and in 1926 he became a member of section 2 (brilliant cutters servant).
In February 1927, Jacob left the ANDB and went to Antwerp to earn his living as a diamond cutter. He then ended up in the district of Deurne and lived there at Herrystraat 30. Jacob returned to Amsterdam in 1930, where he was registered on 27 December at 2e Jan Steenstraat 14.
After that he lived in Muiderstraat, Kerkstraat, Ceintuurbaan until he moved into accommodation on 14 April 1936 at Ruyschstraat 33 with the widow Schoontje Querido-Baggers. In November 1937 the Querido family moved to house number 35 upstairs and Jacob moved with them.
Before Jacob left for Antwerp and ended up in Deurne, he lived at home with his parents, including at Sint Antoniebreestraat, Dijkstraat, Nieuwe Kerkstraat, Batavierstraat, Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat and Lange Houtstraat 26. From there he left for Rapenburg 69 where he lived in with Gabriel Blog's family.
The address Ruyschstraat 35 upper house turned out to be his last known address in the Netherlands. Because on 28 January 1943, Jacob Michel was arrested and deported to Westerbork and transferred four weeks later on 20 February to Vught concentration camp where he remained until 7 June 1943.
On 8 June 1943 Jacob was deported from Westerbork to Sobibor, a transport of 3017 mainly children and their companions. This transport became known as the so-called “Kindertransport” (Childrens Transport). It is not known why Jacob Michel was included in this children's transport as he was not related to one of the children there.
Known is however, that there were no survivors from this transport; all the children with their supervisors, including the 48-year-old Jacob Michel, were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Sobibor after arriving on 11 June 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Friedrich Michel and Jacob Michel; archive cards of Jacob Michel; birth certificate Amsterdam nr. 9780 of 19 September 1894 from register 10-folio15v for Jacob Michel; the archive of the ANDB/membership cards of Jacob Michel; the dossier of foreigners of the City of Antwerp nr. 979#1001 district Deurne of Jacob Michel; various residence cards of Amsterdam; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Jacob Michel; website ITS Arolson/ camp card Jacob Michel; the Wikipedia website “Kindertransport vanuit Vught”; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and family history from a surviving familymember.