The Vos-Nabarro family

These Dutch Jews from Antwerp, Emilius Vos, a 31-year-old diamond worker, Rebecca Nabarro, 28, their children Isaak, 5, Andries, 4, and Herman, 3, lived in what was called the Jewish quarter, which lay within the bounds of the second great nighttime raid organized in Antwerp.

They were sent to the Dossin Barracks on 29 August 1942, destined for Transport 7. Transport 7 left Mechelen on 1 September 1942, stopped at Kosel before getting to Auschwitz. Emilius Vos was ordered off the train, and made to leave his wife and three children behind.

Eighty-five percent of the women on this transport were gassed as soon as they arrived, which meant that a mother with three young children faced certain death. Emilius Vos lived on alone. He was one of the fifteen survivors of Transport 7, who like him had been detrained at Kosel for forced labour in the camps of Upper Silesia. Subsequently he passed through the camps Kleinmangersdorf, Trzebinia, Annaberg, and Blechhammer where, on 1 April 1944, he was tattooed with his Auschwitz registration number, 178.886. He was in the death march to the Gross-Rosen camp, and then on to Buchenwald where he was liberated on 30 May 1945, the sole survivor of his family.