Elias van Tijn was the son of Debora Roosje van Tijn-Engelschman.
Elias was married. From this marriage six children were born.
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Before the war, Elias van Tijn was an executive member of the Independent Socialist Party (OSP). The OSP fused with the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP). Elias van Tijn was co-founder of the League of Revolutionary Socialists (BRS - ), a separation of this fusion.
Socialist sympathizers from England wrote him a letter in which they pleaded with him to come to England to escape the danger posed by the nazis. Elias van Tijn refused. He wanted to fight fascism in the Netherlands.
Already before the war, Elias van Tijn was the head of the Kraaipanschool in Amsterdam. When the school was designated as a school for Jewish pupils, he was appointed by the Jewish Council as its principal. Under his headship, the Kraaipanschool became a centre of illegality. It had a duplicator. Elias van Tijn also arranged distribution coupons, identification cards and false identity papers. Under the pseudonym Piet Marsman, he wrote articles for the illegal press. The attic of the school was equipped as a hiding place.
After his arrest, Elias van Tijn was transferred to camp Amersfoort. Although detained, he gave lectures on socialism and literature. He recited from Multatuli's 'Woutertje Pieterse' which he knew by heart. Via Westerbork, Elias van Tijn was deported to Auschwitz.
B. Braber, Zelfs als wij zullen verliezen. Joden in verzet en illegaliteit in Nederland 1940-1945 (Amsterdam, 1990) 26, 87; B. de Cort, De Groep Gerretsen. Kroniek van een verzetsgroep, 1940-1945 (Den Haag 1998) 18-19 en 64; M. van Tijn, Ik heb niet de Jodenster gedragen (Gorinchem 1990) 9, 22, 38
In December 2007 a monument for Elias van Tijn was revealed in front of the ROC Amsterdam, Praktijkschool Luca, Kraaipanstraat 58-60.
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