Sophia Sanders was the second spouse of Nathan Jacob van Engers, who was born on 21 March 1866 in Hellevoetsluis as a son of the piece- and dry goods dealer Jacob Nathan van Engers and Sophia Polak. Sophia was born in Den Haag on 12 August 1877 as daughter of the blacksmith Mozes Salomon Sanders and Naatje Wolff.
Nathan Jacob’s first wife was Rosalie or Roosje Andriessen, with whom he had two children, in Terneuzen and in Antwerp, namely Jacob Nathan in 1888 and Ruben in 1889. The latter died already in the same year only four months old. Jacob Nathan survived the war but nothing additional is known of him. Roosje herself died in Rotterdam on 18 January 1905, whereupon Nathan Jacob Engers remarried Sophia Sanders on 12 September 1906 in Den Haag.
Nathan Jacob and Sophia together had another seven children, namely Mozes Nathan in 1907, Jacob in 1908, Joseph in 1909, Hanna Elisabeth in 1911, Machiel in 1912, Elisabeth in 1914 and Henri in 1915. They were all killed during the Shoah.
Nathan Jacob van Engers was a trader in rope work and metals. When he married Sophia in Den Haag, he continued to live there with his wife until they returned to Rotterdam on 15 July 1908. On 23 May 1929 Nathan moved with his wife and children to Ruydaelstraat 68 in Nijmegen, from where the returned to Rotterdam on 31 January 1930 after their stay of 8 months there.
Since the wedding to Sophia Sanders, Nathan Jacob and his wife and the children have moved more than 20 times over the years, in Rotterdam but also beyond. On 12 April 1938 Nathan and Sophia lived in the Schoutenstraat 117b in Rotterdam. During the bombardment of Rotterdam on 14 May 1940, only a small piece of that street remained after the bombing but due to that happening, Nathan and Sophia most likely had to move to Willem Dudokplain 37. There – also most likely – Sophia van Engers-Sanders has died there on 19 December 1942. Nathan Jacob van Engers however was taken from his residence on 10 April 1943 and carried off to Westerbork and on 20 April deported to Sobibor. There, on arrival on 23 April 1943, he has been killed immediately in the gas chambers there at the age of 77.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of Nathan Jacob van Engers; Municipal Archive of Den Haag, wedding certificate of Van Engers/Sanders; Death certificate from Rotterdam for Sophia van Engers-Sanders and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Nathan Jacob van Engers.