Izak van Blijdenstijn, merchant, was the youngest of the six children of Hijman van Blijdenstijn and Judith Docters, of whom one child was stillborn. Izak was born on 21 October 1894 in Ophemert and married 12 July 1921 in Varik, municipality of West Betuwe, the sister of his brother-in-law Izaäk Kalker, Sophia Elizabeth Kalker. She was a daughter of Mozes Levie Kalker and Rachel Meijer and born on 28 October 1888 in Varik.
The couple had three children, namely Judith Rachel, born on 3 May 1822 in Ophemert and in Tiel were born Mozes Levie on 10 August 1924 and Abraham Emanuël on 24 July 1932. The children and their parents were all killed during the Shoah in Auschwitz.
The Van Blijdenstijn family lived in Tiel but probably moved after 1939 to Rotterdam, where they came to live in the Agniesestraat 18b and lived there with the Simon Philipse family which consisted of four people. The Van Blijdenstijn family was taken from there in the early days of October 1942 and carried off via Loods 24 to Westerbork and from there further to the extermination camps.
The registration cards from the file cabinet of the Jewish Council show, that the youngest son Abraham Emanuël was registered in Westerbork on 13 October 1942, whilst his parents and his brother and sister had been carried off to Westerbork already 10 days earlier. They arrived in the camp between 3 and 5 October 1942 but it is not known in which barrack they had to stay until their deportation. At that time there was a lot of bustle and chaos in the camp.
Because at the same time large raids were held, such as on 2 and 3 October 1942 in Amsterdam, in which the Germans deployed all possible men plus the entire Amsterdam police force in the largest raid up to that time. In just a few days at the beginning of October 1942, between 13.000 and 15.000 Jews were arrested, including in the labor camps, they went almost immediately to Westerbork, where the bustle in the barracks and the chaos immediately became indescribable. The first Jews were deported in Rotterdam already at the end of July/early August 1942 and the first deportations started in Den Haag in August 1942 too.
After a stay in Westerbork of about 12 days, Izak van Blijdenstijn, his wife Sophia Elizabeth Kalker and their children Judith Rachel and Abraham Emanuël were put on transport to Auschwitz on 16 October 1942; their son Mozes Levie however had been deported to Auschwitz already a few days earlier, on 12 October 1942. That transport contained 1711 deportees in total of whom among others Mozes Levie was selected to perform forced labour upon arrival at the “Rampe” (platform) on 18 or 19 October. In the end he lost his life there on 28 February 1943 but it is not known under which conditions he got killed.
Izak van Blijdenstijn has been deported with wife and children on 16 October 1942 in a transport of in total 1710 deportees. This transport was a so-called “Kozel transport”; the train made a stop in Kozel, located ± 80 km west from Auschwitz, where 570 men between 15 and 50 years of age were forced to leave the train, to be deployed then as forced labourers in the surrounding labour camps there. It is possible that Izak van Blijdenstijn belonged to that group of men, but it is not known on which date exactly and where the 48-year old Izak van Blijdenstijn has lost his life. His death certificate, made out on orders of the Ministry of Justice by the city of Rotterdam show that he died on 28 February 1943 in the surroundings of Auschwitz. (On the website Joods Monument however only the place of death is mentioned as Auschwitz).
Sophia Elizabeth van Blijdenstijn-Kalker and her children Judith Rachel and Abraham Emanuël arrived in Auschwitz on 19 October 1942 and were killed immediately in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the website wiewaswie.nl; website openarchieven.nl; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Izak van Blijdenstijn, Sophia Elizabeth van Blijdenstijn-Kalker, Judith Rachel van Blijdenstijn, Mozes Levie van Blijdenstijn and Abraham Emanuël van Blijdenstijn; website Joods erfgoed Rotterdam/World War II and the City Archive of Rotterdam, certificates of death for Izak van Blijdenstijn, deed 1952V1/folio 005/nr 1952.21 dated 02 Feb 1952; for Sophia Elizabeth van Blijdenstijn-Kalker, deed 1951V1/folio 054verso/nr 1951.316 dated 19 Jan 1951; for Judith Rachel van Blijdenstijn, deed 1951V1/folio048/nr 1951/278 dated 19 Jan 1951; for Mozes Levie van Blijdenstijn, deed 1950V4/folio 052verso/nr 1950.3342 dated 21 Dec 1950 and for Abraham Emanuël van Blijdenstijn, deed 1951V1/folio 048nr 1951.277 dated 19 Jan 1951, all made out in Rotterdam on order of the Dutch Ministry of Justice after the war.