Lea Vos was a daughter of Leendert Vos and Esther Porcelijn. She was born on 30 October 1906 in Amsterdam as the first of six children of the Vos family. She went with her parents, brother Hijman and sister Rachel in August 1913 to Antwerp and lived there at Bleekerijstraat 1. In 1914 they returned to Amsterdam where her brother Hartog was born in May 1914. Two months later, back in Antwerp, they lived at Rolwagenstraat 9, till they returned in 1916 in Amsterdam, where her father Leendert Vos passed away in 1919 and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen.
In Amsterdam, Lea’s mother Esther Porcelijn moved from Hertzogstraat 6 to Tugelaweg 129 2nd floor and Lea and her sibs lived there too. On 22 May 1929 Lea married Emanuel Zomerplaag in Amsterdam, a son of Gerrit Zomerplaag and Henriette Schabraq. Emanuel was born on 11 May 1906 in Amsterdam and he was employed as a sales representative for a chlorine plant.
After their wedding day, Lea and Emanuel left for Antwerp on 3 June 1929 where on 27 February 1930 their daughter Henriette was born. Their second child, Leendert, was born in Amsterdam on 6 October 1931. The Zomperlaag-Vos family lived in Amsterdam among others at Ben Viljoenstraat, Afrikanerplein, Tugelaweg, Lepelstraat and Vrolikstraat.
Emanual and Lea were officially registered in Amsterdam as divorced on 17 September 1943 but they had not lived together as a couple already several years before. On 30 November 1938 Emanuel left Amsterdam for Vorst (French Forest) located in the region of Brussels and on 19 April 1940 he returned from Schaerbeek near Brussels to Amsterdam. There he arrived at his brother-in-law Gerrit Trompetter at Hofmeyrstraat 44, who was married to his sister Sara Zomerplaag. But already on 5 August 1940 Emanuel left there for Den Haag. He was registered in 1941 by the Jewish Council there at the address Haagschestraat 125.
Lea and her children Henriette and Leendert were registered by the Jewish Council in 1941 at the address Albert Cuypstraat 225 in Amsterdam, where they came living already on 14 November 1938. They stayed before still at Kromme Mijdrechtstraat 85 1st floor and at Tugelaweg 128 3rd floor. Lea earned her living for herself and children as seamstress and ironer, most likely working for Paul Heijmann, who lived at Albert Cuypstraat 225 too and by advertising in the Joodsche Weekblad (Jewish Weekly) was looking for seamstresses of lingerie.
The registration card of Emanuel Zomerplaag from the file cabinet of the Jewish Council shows that he came in Westerbork on 1 April 1943 where he stayed in barrack 83, a hospital barrack. On 4 May 1943 he was put on transport to Sobibor as a “penal case” and on arrival there on 7 May 1943, Emanuel Zomerplaag was immediately gassed in the gas chambers of Sobibor.
Lea Zomerplaag-Vos and her children Henriette and Leendert however, were carried off from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught on 16 April 1943. On 6 June both the children and their mother as their accompanist were deported with the so-called children transport from Vught via Westerbork to Sobibor, where Lea, Henriette and Leendert on arrival there on 11 June 1943 immediately were murdered in the gas chambers there.
Sources include the Felix Archive of Antwerp, dossiers of foreigners Antwerp 214439 and from Berchem no. 15578 for Emanuel Zomerplaag; the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Gerrit Zomerplaag, Leendert Vos and Emanuel Zomerplaag, archive cards of Emanuel Zomerplaag, Lea Vos and Henriette and Leendert Zomerplaag; various residence cards of Amsterdam; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Emanuel Zomerplaag, Lea Zomerplaag-Vos, Henriette Zomerplaag and Leendert Zomerplaag; website ITS Arolson/camp card Vught of Lea Zomerplaag-Vos and Henriette and Leendert Zomerplaag; Transportlist Westerbork-Sobibor of 4 May 1943 re. Emanuel Zomerplaag from the book “Extermintation Camp Sobibor” by Jules Schelvis.