Levie Gompers, usually called Louis, was a son of Philip Barend Gompers and Heintje Jacob Boas. Seven of the eleven children of this couple were killed during the Holocaust: Levie himself, but also his siblings Mietje, Sara, Esther, Eliazer, Hartog and Clara.
Levie married 5 December 1918 in Amsterdam Esther van Collem, a daughter of Simon Emanuel van Collem and Jansje hamburger. The couple had two children of whom the first child was still born and their second child died after four days. Levie and Esther had no further offspring.
Leve was a diamond worker by trade and since January 1898 a member of the diamond trade union ANDB. He was classified as brilliant cutter in the trade group 4. However, his membership of the union was terminated, based on a regulation of the Reichs Commissioner from 1942, forcing Levie on 14 March 1942 to become a member of the Israelitic Diamond Workers Trade Union “Betsalel”. Jews were no longer allowed to be members of a non-Jewish organization like among others the ANDB.
After the wedding in 1918, Levie and Esther lived at Groenburgwal but moved 2 June 1923 to Plantage Kerklaan 32 1st floor. In July 1934 they moved again to Den Texstraat 42 upperhouse, where they lived in with the Hartog Cauveren family and on 28 June 1940 they moved to Nieuwe Achtergracht 3rd stock. The first floor of this address was the home of Levie’s unmarried sisters Sara, Esther and Clara.
Levie’s spouse Esther van Collem passed away on Amsterdam on 27 December 1942 and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery at Muiderberg on 29 December, without knowing anything about the fate of her husband, where he might be or what has happened to him.
Levie himself however was already carried off from the Hollandsche Schouwburg in Amsterdam to Westerbork in the night of 29-30 September 1942 and from there put on transport to Auschwitz on 2 October. On arrival there on 5 October 1942, Levie Gompers was immediately killed .
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive card of Levie Gompers, archive card of Esther van Collem; membership card ANDB of Levie Gompers; Archive of the Red Cross/transports to Westerbork, List NL-Ha-NRK-2050-00006; website Aekevoth/Mokum/Burial permits/grave Esther van Collem at Muiderberg; certificate of death for Esther van Collem, Amsterdam 1942, reg. 15, certificate nr. 200 and genealogical additions of a visitor of the website.