Benjamin Roodenburg was a son of David Roodenburg and Hendrika Engelsman. He had six other siblings, namely Joseph, Hijman, Sara, Geesje, Abraham and Matthijs. Hijman, born 4 May 1895 passed 13 May 1931; Sara and Matthijs survived the war, just as Geesje Roodenburg. Her husband Andries Wurms and two of her children were killed in the Holocaust. Joseph passed away in 1941 in Amsterdam but Abraham and Benjamin self were killed in the Shoah.
At the age of 25, Benjamin Roodenburg married 15 July 1931 in Amsterdam Sientje Leijden van Amstel. She was born in 1889 and previously married on 9 February 1910 to Aäron Gobets but the couple divorced 18 April 1930.
Sientje Leijden van Amstel and Aäron Gobets had six children, namely Elisabeth (22-3-1911 – died in 1980), Machiel (31-5-1913 – died in 1992), Meijer (7-5-1917), Femmetje (12-9-1918 – nothing furhter known of her), Nathan (14-1-1920) and Marcus (3-9-1922). Of these children, Meijer, Nathan and Marcus were killed in Auschwitz.
After being divorced from Sientje Leijden van Amstel, Aäron Gobets remarried Theresia Gotlieb from Grave on 1 Octber 1930. She too was previously married with-, and divorced from Mozes Lopes Cardozo, with whom Theresia had a son, named Johan, who was born 30 July 1929. Johan came living in as stepson in the Aäron Gobets family at Korte Houtstraat 38 3rd floor in Amsterdam.
In their wedlock, Aäron Gobets and Theresia Gotlieb had also two daughters, namely Sara (20-8-1933) and Anna (14-9-1935). They, their halfbrother Johan Lopes Cardozo and their parents Aäron Gobets and Theresia Gotlieb were killed in Sobibor.\
Benjamin Roodenburg was taken 9 April 1943 to the concentration camp Vught, where he stayed in barrack 4B. On 21 May he was put to work at Moerdijk, a satellite camp (Aussen Kommando) from Camp Vught, where he stayed in barrack 2. On 3 July 1943 he was sent from Moerdijk to Westerbork (barrack 58) and put on transport to Sobibor on 6 July. His wife Sientje Leijden van Amstel was deported with that same transport to Sobibor. On arrival there on 9 July 1943, Benjamin Roodenburg and Sientje Leijden van Amstel were immediately killed.
At the harbor in Moerdijk, where today the pilots of the Ballegooy’s company are nw standing, an “Aussen Kommando” (satellite camp) of concentration camp Vught was located during the Second Worl War. Between 26 March 1943 and the end of February 1944, the old barges at the harbor quay of Moerdijk were used as satellite camp. About 500 Jews lived in these ship’s barracks. They arrived there from Lane Zwaluwe on foot. The Jews were put to work as forced labourers when digging tank traps in Zuid Holland and the West-corner of Noord Brabant. Also political prisoners came to this camp in Moerdijk. (source: https://www.tracesofwar.nl/sights/28358/Buitenkamp-Moerdijk.htm).
Sources: City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards and archive cards of Benjamin Roodenburg, Aäron Gobets; archive cards of Sientje Leijden van Amstel, Theresia Gotlieb and Johan Lopes Cardozo and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Benjamin Roodenburg and Sientje Leijden van Amstel.