Victor IJzerman was a son of Abraham IJzerman and Mietje Hoepelman. He was born 10 August 1888 in Amsterdam and worked as processor of tobacco powder for the Trading Society Handelsvereniging v.h. B. Stuiver in the Nieuwe Kerkstraat 141 in Amsterdam, but also as a diamond polisher. Victor married in Amsterdam on 6 July 1921 Eva Stuiver, born 4 October 1892 in Amsterdam as daughter of Abraham Stuiver and Kaatje Boeken. The couple had one son, Abraham, who was born 26 November 1923 in Amsterdam.
After their wedding, Victor and his wife Eva lived at Nieuwe Kerkstraaqt 137 but moved in 1924 to Retiefstraat 71. Between 1927 and 1929 they stayed in Antwerp and Deurne in Belgium. In 1929 they returned to Amsterdam and lived at Palembangstraat 45 1st floor and their latest address in Amsterdam per 5 June 1930 became Smitsstraat 20 3rd floor in the Transvaal district in Amsterdm-East.
During the large-scale raids in Amsterdam of early October 1942, Victor and his wife Eva were arrested and carried off to Westerbork. Their son Abraham however had this job with the Jewish Council since 24 July 1942 as “Employee General Service” at the H.Q. at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 58 and was exempted from deportation because of function for the time being. (“bis auf weiteres”).
On 5 October 1942, the Victor IJzerman family was put on transport to Auschwitz. The transport contained 2012 deportees, among them Victor IJzerman, his wife Eva Stuiver and also his son Abraham IJzerman. Besides the IJzerman family, the transport contained persons who came from the Jewish labor camps in the North of the Netherlands, which the Germans had emptied at Jom Kipur 1942.
The transport was a so-called Kozel-transport. The train stopped at Kozel, a place located ± 80 km west from Auschwitz, where 550 boys and men between 15 and 50 years were forced to leave the train, to be deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labor camps of Auschwiz. Victor and his son Abraham belonged to that group of 550 men.
Those, who remained in the train were transported onwards to Auschwitz, to be killed there. It also included Victor IJzerman’s wife Eva Stuiver, who has been killed immediately upon arrival in Auschwitz on 8 October 1942.
Where the 19-year old Abraham IJzerman has ended, is not known, nor his exact date of death. It is therefore that the Ministry of Justice after the war ordered the Municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a certificate of death for Abraham IJzerman in which has been established that he has died in Mid Europe on 31 August 1943, a legally established date of death.
Contrary to what was previously assumed, Victor IJzerman appeared not having been sent on to Auschwitz but has ended up from Kozel in the “Reichs Autobahnlager Annaberg” in Upper Sileswia, as a Polish researcher discovered in 2016. According to his certificate of death which was found there, he has lost his life there on 12 December 1942.
Since it was previously impossible to determine exactly where and when Victor IJzerman was killed, the official Dutch date of 8 October 1942 is maintained, a legal date of death set by the Ministry of Justice after the war.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive cards of Victor IJzerman and Eva Stuiver, residence card of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Kerkstraat 141; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Victor IJzerman, Eva IJzerman-Stuiver and Abraham IJzerman; the wikipedialist of Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl; certificate of death for Victor IJzerman, Amsterdam, register A89-fol21v- cert.nr. 120 dated 26 October 1951 and the private collection of Edward Haduch, Kedzierzyn-Kozle (Poland), the certificate of death of Victor IJzerman from the Peoples Registry (Standesamt) Annaberg.