Biography

The fate of Clara Blom.

Claartje Blom was haar leven lang hulp in de huishouding bij de familie van Eliazer Tas en Eva Lamon. Zij is daar nooit meer weggegaan.
Na de Sjoa werd door overlevende leden van de families Tas, Cohen, Sondervan en Cohen Paraira met warmte aan Claartje teruggedacht, waarbij dan meewarig werd opgemerkt dat “Claartje slechts één keer in haar leven Amsterdam had verlaten, om in Auschwitz te worden vermoord".

Clara Blom, usually named Claartje, was born 31 August 1870 as the third child of Nathan Blom and Betje Sluis. Her parents married in Amsterdam on 19 June 1861 and had five other children, namely Mietje, Vogeltje, Israël, Rebecca and Philip. Clara’s father worked as a labourer and died at the age of 66 in 1905 and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery of Zeeburg in Amsterdam. Her mother died in 1923 and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen. Her siblings were all killed in the Shoah.

Claartje Blom was employed by the Emanuel Tas family already at a young age. Since this family lived at Recht Boomssloot 95, Clara Blom lived there as well and she stayed with this family for the rest of her life. All the times the family removed to another home, Clara went with them too. She never left there; she always stayed with them in Amsterdam.

And when in 1926 the couple Tas-Lamon extensively celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, with all their children and relatives at the party centre Huize Stranders in Amsterdam, also Claartje attended the feast.

Eliazer Tas passed away in 1928. His widow Eva Lamon still stayed four years at Oude Schans 92. But when she and her son Isaac moved to Cilliersstraat 31 ground floor in 1932, Claartje moved with them too.  And when Eva Tas-Lamon has died in 1934, Claartje remained living there together with Isaac Tas.

Unlike her siblings, Clara Blom was never married. She was registered in Westerbork 24 September 1942 and already the next day, 25 September deported at age 72 to Auschwitz. On arrival there 28 September 1942, she has been immediately killed.

Sources, among others: City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Nathan Blom, Eliazer Tas and Clara Blom; archiev cards of Mietje, Vogeltje, Israël, Rebecca Philip and Clara Blom; the file cabinet of the Jewisch Council, registration card of Clara Blom and additions of visitors of the website.

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