Izaak Wurms was a son of Ruben Wurms and Clara Hamburg, and was born on 16 November 1914 in Amsterdam. He lived with his parents at Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat 10, 1st floor. He became a bicycle boy, then he was a casual worker on the market and later he became an apprentice diamond worker and learned the trade at various teachers and factories through the ANDB, de Algemene Nederlandse Diamantbewerkers Bond (General Dutch Diamond Workers Association).
From 6 June 1929, Izaak was admitted as an apprentice diamond worker and was initially assigned to tutor S. Grishaver at the Rozelaar factory. Subsequently, in 1936 he came to tutor G. Lampetje at atelier Bottenheim, with Isaacs, and in 1937 with Coster, where he trained with L. Vieijra and further in 1937 at atelier Hildesheim with tutor S. Segaar.
On 22 February 1941, the unmarried Izaak Wurms fell victim to the major raid that the Germans then held in Amsterdam, in which more than 400 Jewish men were arrested. He belonged to the so-called “February group”; was arrested in the Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat, loaded into open trucks on the Jonas Daniel Meijerplein and taken to camp Schoorl. From there he was sent on 27 February to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was brought in a day later and on 22 May 1941 he was sent from Buchenwald to Mauthausen.
According to post-war information, Izaak Wurms died on 5 September 1941 in Mauthausen. At the time, the Ministry of Justice commissioned the municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a death certificate for Izaak Wurms, which states that he died on 5 September 1941 in Mauthausen. (death certificate 401 dated 23 June 1950 from the A-register 40-folio 69).
However, recent research has shown that of all the victims of the February 1941 raids, 150 men may have been gassed at Schloss Hartheim. That was the Hartheim Euthanasia Center (Tötungsanstalt Hartheim) and was an institution that was involved in the implementation of the National Socialist euthanasia program, also referred to as “Aktion T4”. It was located in Hartheim Castle in the municipality of Alkoven, near Linz in Austria.
Especially prisoners from Mauthausen, who were no longer able to do the heavy work in the quarries, but also politically undesirable prisoners were transported to Hartheim. In the bureaucracy, these transfers were covered up with terms such as "leisure or recreational leave". (source Wikipedia). That investigation has shown that Izaak Wurms became one of the victims of the so-called "recreational leave" to Schloss Hartheim and was possibly killed there by gassing already on 13 August 1941.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family registration card of Ruben Wurms; archive card of Izaak Wurms; ANDB apprentice diamondworker card of Izaak Wurms; website ITS Arolson/Izaak Wurms; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Izaak Wurms; Amsterdam City Archives/Izaak Wurms; Wikipedia website Euthanasia Center Hartheim and Aktion T4.