Nathan Droomer was a son of Benjamin Droomer and Jetje Wallig. He was born on 15 January 1893 and was the fourth of the seven children in the family, of whom one child was stillborn in 1895, one child died, almost 3 years old and one child survived the war because he was mixed married. Four children, among them he himself, were killed during the Shoah.
Nathan Droomer worked as waiter and as shop assistant. He married 25 October 1916 in Hilversum to Grietje Woudhuijsen, a daughter of Benjamin Woudhuijsen and Rachel Plukker and had with her five children. Grietje was born 28 February 1889 in Amsterdam and had three other sisters, Mietje, Floortje and Eva ánd one brother, Hijman; they were all killed during the Shoah.
On 30 October 1916 Nathan and Grietje lived at Boschdrift 20 in Hilversum, but shortly thereafter, they moved to Utrecht, where their first born child Benjamin was born on 17 August 1917. Later, they lived again in Hilversum in the Anemoonstraat where three children were born: Andries Henriette and Flora. Mary Rachel was born in 1928 in Amsterdam.
On 28 January 1935 they left for Gouda, where they lived at the Korte Tiendeweg 9 but already in July 1935 they returned to Amsterdam and moved into a house at Nieuwe Achtergracht 106 1st floor, which in retrospect would also become their last known address in the Netherlands.
The children Andries, his wife Zlata Laks – to whom he was married 21 January 1942 – and his sisters Henriette and Flora obviously have responded to the call for the so-called “provision of additional work in Germany”- the “Arbeitseinsatz”. On 17 July 1942 they reported in Westerbork and on 21 July they have been put on transport to Auschwitz. As a result, they all have lost their lives there at different dates in the 2nd half of September 1942.
On the other hand, Nathan Droomer, his wife Grietje Woudhuijsen and their youngest daughter Mary Rachel were deported from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught in the night of 1 to 2 April 1943. On 24 May they were transferred from there to Westerbork where they stayed the night in barrack 60. The next day, 25 May, they were put on transport to Sobibor, where on arrival there on 28 May 1943 they have been killed immediately in the gas chambers there.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card of Benjamin Droomer; the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Nathan Droomer and Grietje Woudhuijsen; the Regional Archive of Mid-Holland (website samh.nl)/family registration card of Nathan Droomer in Gouda; the Urecht Archives, certificate of birth of Benjamin Droomer and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of among others Nathan Droomer, Grietje Droomer-Woudhuijsen, Benjamin Droomer, Jansje Droomer-Naarden, Andries Droomer, Zlata Droomer-Laks and Henriette, Flora and Mary Rachel Droomer.