Biography

The fate of Clara Vos.

Clara Vos was the third child of Salomon Vos and Sientje Les. She was born on 6 November 1891 in Amsterdam. She was the second child named Clara; there has been previously a daughter in the Salomon Vos family, Clara Vos, who was born on 23 July 1887 but already died on 13 August 1888, just twelve months old. But Clara had an older sister Sara and had two younger sisters, Rachel and Rosa and a younger brother Jacob Salomon.

Clara Vos remained unmarried and she worked as a seamstress and a dressmaker. She lived at home with her parents and elder sister and moved in 1926 with them from Rapenburgerstraat 102 to Plantage Muidergracht 35 1st floor. Presumably in 1940, her sister Sara Vos moved into a house in the Nieuwe Amstelstraat 28/30 and runned there a bread depot. Clara, Rachel and Jacob Salomon however moved into a house at Plantage Kerklaan 14 2nd floor on 9 April 1940 but Clara moved one time again on 17 December 1942 to Rijnstraat 154 2nd floor, where her sister Rosa with her husband Asser de Haan lived.

Details from the registration card of Clara Vos from the Jewish Council show that she was in possession of a “Sperre”, issued by the Council. She was exempted from deportation for the time being and worked per 30 August 1942 at the JVvVV, the Jewish Society for Nursing and Care, which was a part of the Jewish Council. She was a “cook” there for the nursery (crfor the nursery (crèche) at Plantage Middenlaan 31 in Amsterdam.

However, during the large-scale and secretly prepared raid by the Germans on 20 June 1943, she was arrested and carried off to Westerbork. During that raid, more than 5500 Jews were taken to be deported. Clara Vos was put on transport to Sobibor on 6 July 1943 and on arrival there on 9 July 1943 immediately gassed in the gas chambers there.

Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Clara Vos; residence card of Plantage Muidergracht 35 1st floor; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Clara Vos and the Wikipedia website of “the big raid of 20 June 1943” (Dutch only).

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