Isaac Roodenburg and Aaltje Verduin were both born in Amsterdam. Together they had four children: Sara, Sophia, Jeannette and Hartog. Isaac began his working life as a diamond cleaver, but after a splinter injured his eye and left him blind, he started trading in rags. Perhaps he walked the streets calling out for old clothes, which he then sold on to Amsterdam paper factories. In 1937 Isaac and Aaltje moved to Transvaalstraat. By then, three of their children had left home; only Sophia stayed with them, working as a seamstress. On 26 November 1942 Isaac and Aaltje were interned in Westerbork. They were deported to Auschwitz in early December and murdered there on 7 December 1942. Sophia was left behind alone.
