Izak Arpels was a son of Pinehas Arpels and Sientje Vijevano. He married Regina Polak in Amsterdam on 17 January 1917, a daughter of Mozes Polak and Mietje Velleman. The couple had a son Pierre in 1917.
Izak Arpels left Amsterdam and went to Den Haag where he was registered as citizen on 4 June 1924 at the address Pletterijkade 34 and per 28 July 1924 at Daandelstraat 74. Izak Arpels left Den Haag en went to Antwerp on 13 May 1925 and resided at Statieplein nr. 9. He claimed to be divorced in 1921 and lived in concubinage with the unmarried Jeanne Julie Mathilde Tweepenninckx, who was born in Tienen (Tirlemont) on 18 October 1895.
His wife Regina Polak, vendor woman, has been killed on 21 January 1943 in Auschwitz. His son Pierre, married on 22 April 1942 to Lena de Groot, has lost his life on 30 September 1942, together with his wife in Auschwitz.
Izak Arpels has been deported from Mechelen to Auschwitz with Convoy XXI, which was put together on 19 July 1943 and departed 31 July. He arrived in Auschwitz together with another 1563 prisoners, on 2 August 1943. Only 40 persons of this transport have survived the Holocaust. Al others, among them presumably also Izak Arpels have been killed there immediately upon arrival.
Izak had another brother, 3 years younger, who was married to the sister of his wife Regina: Rebecca Polak, a daughter of Mozes Polak and Mietje Velleman. His brother and his wife had three children. Two of them have survived the Shoah but Salomon, his wife Rebecca and daughter Mietje have been killed during the Holocaust.
Website www.wiewaswie.nl, Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, nr. 153936, images 377-379; Municipal Archive of Den Haag, family registration card of Izak Arpels, City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Salomon Arpels, birth certificate of Jeanne Julie Mathilde Tweepenninckx and the Memorial of the Deportation of the Belgian Jews, page 31 and 89.