Philip Tas was a son of Eliazer Tas and Eva Lamon, who were married in Amsterdam 10 May 1876. Philip had three brothers and two sisters, namely Salomon from 1878, Hartog from 1880, Rachel from 1888, Alida from 1886 and Isaac from 1890. His father, Eliazer Tas, a diamond broker, was born in 1857 and passed in 1928, almost 71 years old. His mother, Eva Lamon, born in 1853, died in 1934 at the age of 80. Both were interred in the Jewish Cemetery at Muiderberg. Salomon and Rachel have died already before the war; Hartog survived the war but the others were killed in the Shoah. It was special that the complete Tas family and relatives have attended the 50th wedding anniversary of her parents at party centre Huize Stranders in Amsterdam. And also Claartje Blom, the servant maid, who lived in with the family already since her younger years.
Philip Tas married his cousin first degree Elisabeth Cohen, a daughter of Abraham Cohen and Henriette Lamon (sister of Eva Lamon). After their wedding they lived at Hemonystraat 32 and up from 1924 at Amsteldijk 23 ground floor in Amsterdam. The couple had two children: Eva in 1915 and Abram in 1921.
In June 1942, Abram Tas (Appie) was summoned for the “Arbeitseinsatz” in Germany. His father Philip then made a far-reaching decision, hoping to save his son from the Arbeitseinsatz: on 26 July 1942 “he took his own life under pressure from the circumstances". Appie and Eva then have tried to escape to Switzerland. During this flight, Appie was arrested near Paris, while he looked around outside his hiding address but never returned. As far as known, he would have been executed there somewhere. His official date of death is 14 November 1942, however, the exact location is unknown.
Eva survived the Shoah and was repatriated from France to Holland in August 1945. She passed away in 2007 in Amsterdam. Elisabeth Tas-Cohen survived the Holocaust too by going into hiding; she returned in Amsterdam in September 1945 and passed away there in 1975.
Sources among others: City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Eliazer Tas; archive card of Philip Tas; residence cards from the City Archive of Amsterdam; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Philip Tas, Elisabeth Tas-Cohen, Eva Tas and Abram Tas; NIOD, archive of the Jewish Council, box 36d, letter 27 July 1942 re the death of Philip Tas; The magazine Auschwitz Bulletin 34-3 of Auguss 1990 re the arrest of Abram Tas; the Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland and an addition of a visitor of the website.