Isidorus Schijvenschuurder was born in Antwerp on 2 February 1898 as son of Eva Jacoba Schijvenschuurder and Meijer Samuel van Praag. Isidorus married in Amsterdam Sientje van Praag on 12 February 1919, who was born 3 December 1895 as daughter of the disc sander Israël van Praag and Saartje de Hond. The couple had three children, namely Sara in 1919, Duifje in 1921 and Hartog in 1923. Sientje van Praag however passed away on 26 Juni 1937 in Amsterdam and was interred 29 June in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen.
After the death of his wife in 1937, Isidorus Schijvenschuurder moved with his family on 1 April 1939 to Lepelstraat 70 2nd storey in the old city centre of Amsterdam. His eldest daughter Sara married 9 July 1941 Jacob Gans, ended up on 16 March 1943 in concentration camp Vught and they were eventually killed in Sobibor on 9 July 1943. Their little son Gerson died already 27 April 1943 in Vught.
Isidorus’ youngest son Hartog was also taken to Vught that 16th of March 1943 but he ended up in the “Aussenkommando Moerdijk” (extern command of Vught). Eventually he too was killed in Sobibor on 9 July 1943, together with his sister and brother-in-law Jacob Gans.
His middle daughter Duifje, was already sent to Westerbork on 24 July 1942 and deported to Auschwitz on 31 July 1942. There she died, presumably at some point due to hardship and heavy forced labour. Her date of death has been established as on 30 September 1942 in Auschwitz.
Isidorus Schijvenschuurder was a diamond worker and polisher by profession. Therefore he travelled regularly between Antwerp and Amsterdam. On 13 January 1931 he settled definitively in Amsterdam with his family, lived at many addresses in the city but per 1 April 1939, his address became Lepelstraat 70 2nd storey in Amsterdam. From there he was most likely taken 1 October 1942 to Westerbork and already put on transport to Auschwitz the next dan, 2 October 1942.
That transport was the first one via the railroad track from Camp Westerbork and in total 1014 persons were deported. The train stopped at Kozel, a place located ± 80 km west from Auschwitz, where 160 boys and men between 15 and 50 years of age were forced to leave the train. They were all deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labor camps of Auschwitz. However, those, who remained in the train were transported onwards to Auschwitz to be killed there.
Also Isidorus Schijvenschuurder belonged to this group of 160 men. It appeared that he eventually ended up as Jewish forced labourer in the "Reichs Autobahnlager Annaberg” in Upper Silesia in Poland. After the war, it was known that Isidorus Schijvenschuurder had not survived the Shoah, but not where, when and under what circumstances he had lost his life. Therefore, on order of the Ministry of Justice, the City of Amsterdam had drawn up a certificate of death for Isidorus Schijvenschuurder, in which was established that he has died in Poland on 31 October 1942.
However, in 2015, research was carried out in Poland to victims of among others the labor camp “Reichsautobahnlager Annaberg” in Upper Silesia where several certificates of death were found, including those of Isidorus Schijvenschuurder. This document shows that he died 29 November 1942 in camp Annaberg. On the death certificate is mentioned as cause of death “heart failure” (Herzschwäche).
By establishing the date of death of Isidore Schijvenschuurder the official Dutch date of death and place of 31 March 1942 in Poland is maintained, a juridical date and place established after the war by the Dutch Department of Justice.
Sources include the Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp, nrs 81093 and 175208; the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive card of Isidorus Schijvenschuurder; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Isidorus Schijvenschuurder, Sara Gans-Schijvenschuurder, Jacob Gans, Gerson Gans, Duifje Schijvenschuurder and Hartog Schijvenschuurder; website wiewaswie.nl/wedding Schijvenschuurder/van Praag; death certificate of Duifje Schijvenschuurder Amsterdam, A-reg.52-fol.50v-cert. 294 dated 9 July 1950; website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland;death certificate for Isidorus Schijvenschuurder from Amsterdam, Register 3 of year1966–fol.3v dated 3 March 1966 and Edward Haduch, Kedzierzyn-Kozle (Poland),the certificate of death of Isidorus Schijvenschuurder from the Peoples Registry (Standesamt) Annaberg.