Jacob Brandon was a son of Isaak Jacob Brandon and Rosa Groenewout. He was born at Nieuwe Kerkstraat 23 in Amsterdam on 31 October 1876 and in his younger years he worked as a slaughterer and as a butcher (1897) and up from 1903 as a peddler. On 17 December 1895, he was exempted from military service during the examination for the National Militia due to minor disabilities. He then lived with his parents, brothers and sisters at Houtkopersburgwal 9 in Amsterdam.
The “slight defects” will certainly have hindered Jacob in his daily life, making it necessary for his mother Rosa to temporarily accommodate Jacob elsewhere after the death of his father on 15 March 1899. At the beginning of July 1899, Jacob went to his aunt Klara Brandon, who was married to Machiel Philip Mok and who lived at Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat 29C in Amsterdam.
It also appears that Jacob Brandon has been admitted several times to various “asylums” and “institutions”. Because after spending some months with his aunt Klara and uncle Machiel, he stayed in the “Old Men and Women House” (Oude Mannen- en Vrouwenhuis) in Gouda from 22 November 1899 to the end of March 1900, where he was appointed as a house servant. Then he leaves again for Amsterdam. Thereafter, on 21 May 1900 he stayed a month in the Municipality of Beesd, but on 25 June 1900 he left Beesd again for Amsterdam.
In fact, Jacob Brandon led a wandering life. He lived in with his sister Jetje, who was married to Mozes Mug until April 1901. After that he returned home to his already widowed mother Rosa, but from 2 May 1903 to 21 October 1904, Jacob stayed with at the department “Men” of the Urban Almshouse (Stedelijk Armenhuis) at Roetersstraat 2. Next, Jacob was registered at the address Warmoesstraat 134/136 at the Salvation Army, until he was registered on 21 November 1904 at Rapenburg 46, actually an upstairs apartment at house number 44 at the corner of Foeliestraat, where also a café and a grocery store were located.
In the period that followed, until 1922, Jacob Brandon stayed, sometimes at intervals of one to several months, alternately in lodging houses and with the Salvation Army. For example, from mid-July 1918 to the beginning of January 1919, Jacob stayed at Spuistraat 82 and from March 1921 to March 1922 in “asylum 17” at Passeerdersgracht 19, called “Toevlucht voor Behoeftigen”,(Refuge for the Needy). This was followed by a stay till 14 April 1922 in a lodging house at Oude Zijds Achterburgwal 43, after which he was admitted in de Municipal Nursinghome for Old People at Roetersstraat 2 where he stayed from 14 April 1922 till 9 May 1924.
From the Nursinghome at Roetersstraat 2 in Amsterdam, Jacob has been transferred in May 1924 to the Provincial Hospital located in Santpoort, which belongs to the Municipality of Bloemendaal, (also known as Meer en Berg). Jacob stayed there till mid December 1927. Finally, on 15 December 1927, Jacob Brandon was admitted in the Dutch Israelitic Mental Asylum in Apeldoorn, “Het Apeltoonsche Bosch”, where he spent the rest of his life and where he passed away on 5 January 1942.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, Jacob Brandon's birth certificate, family registration cards of Isaak Jacob Brandon and Jacob Brandon; Administratively closed family registration cards re. the Brandon family, Population Registers of Amsterdam with Jacob Brandon, various residence cards of Amsterdam; website Joods Amsterdam/Provincial Hospital Bloemendaal/Santpoort and information from the Coda archive from Apeldoorn.