Isaäc Cartoef was the son of Hijman Cartoef and Branca Dooseman. He was born as the youngest of four children on 5 June 1888 in Amsterdam. The eldest of Hijman and Branca was Raphael, who was born on 18 July 1882 but he already passed on 22 June 1886. Then there was Betsy, who was born on 6 March 1884 and then Salomon followed on 19 June 1886. He too died at a very young age on 20 December 1887.
The Hijman Cartoef family lived at Zeedijk 99 and per 1884 at Jodenbreestraat 20. He was a diamond polisher and passed away on 29 September 1902 as a widower as his spouse Branca Dooseman passed already a few years earlier, on 28 October 1898.
Per 1 October 1902, Isaäc and his elder sister Betsy were on their own and they moved to Utrechtsedwarsstraat 157, in July 1904 to Leeuwenhoekstraat 3 and in November 1906 to Nieuwe Herengracht 193. Isaäc’s sister Betsy married on 13 March 1907 Isaäc Leger and moved into houses at various addresses in Amsterdam; they live per October 1915 at Transvaalstraat 51 and per 14 February 1927 at Cilliersstraat 3 1st floor in Amsterdam-East. All those years Isaäc Cartoef remained living in with his sister and brother-in-law and earned his money as a commercial traveller.
On 26 May 1922, Isaäc Cartoef married Helena van Stratum, who was divorced from Hijman Stodel in 1914. He moved in with Helena, who lived since March 1912 at Wijttenbachstraat 35 3rd floor. In February 1928 Isaäc and Helena moved to Cilliersstraat 3 1st floor, where his sister Betsy and her husband Isaäc Leger came to live already one year earlier but in May 1936 Isaäc and Helena moved into a house at Lekstraat 3 21st floor in Amsterdam-South.
At the time of the mandatory registration of all Jews in 1941 in the Netherlands, Isaäc’s wife Helena was hospitalized in the N.I.Z. the Dutch Israelitich Hospital, which was located at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 104. After her discharge from the N.I.Z, she wasn’t able to return to her old address at the Lekstraat as her husband had moved to Laing's Neckstraat. She then found living space at Kloveniersburgwal 17 ground floor, from where she has been arrested on 10 March 1943 and through Westerbork she was deported to Sobibor where she was immediately killed in the gas chamber there on 13 March 1943.
When Helena was taken ill in the N.I.Z., Isaäc Cartoef still moved from Lekstraat to Laing’s Neckstraat 3 in Amsterdam-Oost, whether or not compulsory. From there he was arrested in the early days of October 1942 and carried off to Westerbork. From there, he was put on transport on 23 October 1942 to Auschwitz and on arrival there on 26 October 1942 immediately gassed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Isaäc Leger and Isaäc Cartoef; archive cards of Helene van Stratum, Isaäc Cartoef and Isaäc Leger; the Peoples Registry of Amsterdam and Closed family registration cards re.Hijman Cartoef, Hijman Stodel, Helena van Stratum and Isaäc Cartoef; Amsterdam residence card of Lekstraat 3 and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Helena van Stratum and Isaäc Cartoef.