The De Leeuw family, consisting of father Hartog, mother Cato and daughters Eva and Roosje, moved on 14 August 1915 from Borgerhout in Belgium to Nieuwer Amstel, where Reintje was born on 19 June 1917 as the third daughter. Until his marriage in 1912, father Hartog was a diamond cutter, but later he became a florist, and from March 1923 a gardener and gravedigger at the N.I.H.S, the Dutch Israelitic Main Synagogue.
In December 1929 the family moved to Harteveldscheweg in Diemen, in March 1930 to the Kraaipanstraat in the Transvaal district of Amsterdam-East and in October 1935 to Brinkstraat 38 ground floor in Betondorp. In the meantime, Reintje has been rejoiced with a little brother, Abraham, who was called Bram and who was born in Amsterdam on 6 August 1921. Reintje self was later employed as a fabric clipper in the ready-made-cloth industry.
Her eldest sister Eva was meanwhile married in 1936 to Simon Andries van Gelder and in October 1940, Reintje left Brinkstraat for Voltaplein 30, where her sister and brother-in-law lived. There, she has lived in till September 1941 and returned then again to her parental home in the Brinkstraat.
Already on 14 July 1942, Reintje received a call for the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz”, the provision of additional work in Germany under police surveillance, but her father had a “Sperre because of function”, issued by the Jewish Council, reason why the entire family, who still lived at home, were exempted from deportation too, until further notice. So also Reintje did not had to be deported “for the time being”.
However, not long after the construction of the Concentration Camp Herzogenbusch had started in the course of 1942 in Vught , Reintje was arrested in February 1943 and the 23rd of that month carried off to the new built camp. There she had to stay nearly 11 months, where she has been put to work as a seamstress with “Splitter”, the leading man/woman of the furrier command on 6 September 1943.
On 15 November 1943, Reintje has been put on transport from Camp Vught via Westerbok to Auschwitz. Upon arrival there, the then 26-year old Reintje was selected for forced labour in the camp, but it is unknown where she ended up, nor the “work” she had to do, nor the exact date of her death is known.
After the war, the Dutch Authorities have established, also based on testimonials of survivors and research of the Red Cross, that Reintje de Leeuw no longer could be alive after 31 January 1944. The Municipality of Amsterdam then was commissioned to draw up a certificate of death for Reintje de Leeuwn, in which has been established that she has died in Auschwitz on 31 January 1944.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards and archive card of Hartog de Leeuw, archive card of Reintje de Leeuw; website ITS Arolson/camp card Vught/Reintje de Leeuw; website Traces of War/camp Vught (only Dutch language); the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Reintje de Leeuw; the wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the certificate of death for Reintje de Leeuw, made out in Amsterdam on 24 August 1951, no.402 from the register 84-folio 69.