Machiel Luks was a son of Wolf Luks and Betje Trijtel. 29 December 1907 he married Klara Schellevis in Amsterdam, a daughter of Hartog Salomon Schellevis and Judic Engelsman. The couple had six children, namely Betje in 1898, Judic in 1899, Rebecca in 1902, Kaatje in 1904, Willem in 1905 and Mietje in 1906. Their daughter Kaatje howver died already after a few weeks, 29 May 1904.
After their wedding, Machiel and Klara lived at Valkenburgerstraat 108 3rd floor-back house but in 1906 they moved to house number 105. 8 January 1927 the family moved to Zwanenburgerstraat 26 1st floor and per 8 April 1933 they went to the address Weesperstraat 57 2nd stock in Amsterdam. However, 31 March 1941 the moved for the last time to Weesperstraat 54 3rd floor, where they came to live in with the family of their daughter Rebecca, who was married to Levie Waterman.
All their children were married, except Kaatje, who died as a baby. Their daughter Judic, who was married 26 July 1923 to Machiel de Brave, passed away 11 February 1929 in Amsterdam and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen. Machiel remarried in 1932 Dilia de Weert but also he passed away, already 15 October 1934 and has been interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen. All other children and their families were killed in the Shoah.
From notes on the registration card of Machiel Luks, made out by the Jewish Council, the following appeared: Willem Luks had sent a letter from Birkenau to his wife Sientje Barber on 18 January 1943. The bizarre of this is, that Willem had no idea that his wife Sientje had been killed already in Auschwitz 11 December 1942. Thence his letter arrived 1 February 1943 at the “Postoffice, dept. Foreign Countries” of the Jewish council and – as it seems to be happened, this letter was forwarded 8 February 1943 to Roza Polak-Barber, sister-in-law of Willem and sister of his wife Sientje Barber, who lived at President Brandtlaan 18 3rd floor in Amsterdam. Presumably, Roza must have received this letter 12 February 1943, just before she and her husband Emanuel Polak were put on transport to concentration camp Vught The content of this letter is not known.
28 November 1942 Machiel Luks and his wife Klara Schellevis were locked in at Westerbork where they had to stay for some time. Both were eventually deported 9 February 1943 to Auschwitz and on arrival there, 12 February 1943, both were immediately killed.
City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Machiel Luks, archive cards of Klara Schellevis, Betje Turk-Luks, Machiel de Brave, Kaatje Luks, Rebecca Waterman-Luks, Willem Luks en Sientje Luks-Barber en Mietje Polak-Luks; Het Stenen Archief, gravestone of Judic de Brave-Luks and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of van Machiel Luks, Klara Luks-Schellevis en Willem Luks.