Van West-Goudsmit family. Collection

Michel van West was born on 31 October 1887 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He became a florist and a flower merchant. Around 1910 he immigrated to Belgium, after which several of his brothers joined him. Together they set up the van West brothers flowers and plants dealership, located at Rue de l’Ascension 47 in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels. Their business became one of the largest in Europe. On 31 July 1912, Michel married Sara Goudsmit (born on 6 October 1887 in Amsterdam) in the Dutch capital. Two weeks after their wedding the couple settled at Rue de l’Ascension 31 in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, where a son named Leo was born on 19 august 1913. During the First World War the family presumably returned to the Netherlands where a daughter named Alberthina was born on 11 September 1916. After the First World War, the van West family moved into an apartment above the van West brothers’ flower wholesale business at Rue de l’Ascension 47. Michel and Sara’s youngest child, a son named Edouard, was born in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode on 16 November 1927. Eldest son Leo van West entered the family business and, after he married in 1937, resided at the same address with his wife and daughter. The van West-Goudsmit family still lived at Rue de l’Ascension 47 when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. Since they needed to buy fresh produce at the early flower markets, father and son van West obtained a Sperrstundenausweis in order for them to go out during the curfew imposed on the Jewish population. Michel van West and his family obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees, becoming members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in Spring 1942. At the end of August 1942 Michel and his wife Sara received an Arbeitseinsatzbefehl, a convocation for forced labour, ordering them to present themselves “voluntarily” at the Dossin barracks in Mechelen. However, they were exempted when they could prove that both of them were ill. Michel van West, his wife Sara Goudsmit and their youngest son Edouard were arrested under unknown circumstances. They were registered at the Dossin barracks in Mechelen on 9 July 1943. Their names were immediately added to the deportation list of transport XXI, which was to depart on 31 July 1943. A request to intervene on their behalf was sent to queen Elisabeth. The court indeed tried to obtain their release, but instead the van West-Goudsmit family was added to the group of Jewish prisoners at the camp identified by the letter Z (Zurückgehalten or temporarily exempted). Michel, Sara and Edouard were stricken from Transport XXI and, after spending some time in the Z-group, were registered on the deportation list of transport XXIIA, which was to depart on 20 September 1943. Again, they were taken off the list as they were transferred to the list of transport XXIII, which was to depart on 15 January 1944. Eventually, Michel, Sara and Edouard ran out of luck. Eldest son Leo van West was also arrested and was registered at the Dossin barracks on 6 March 1944. All four family members were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XXIV on 4 April 1944. None of them survived. Although Leo was with certainty selected as a forced labourer, he perished in Mauthausen on 6 February 1945. Michel and Sara’s daughter Alberthina van West survived the war, as did Leo van West’s wife and daughter.

This item was purchased by Filip De Sutter at a militaria fair in Ciney, Belgium, in 2022. He subsequently donated the original item to Kazerne Dossin.

Filip De Sutter, 2022