Biography

About Simon Lens.

Two of the seven children of Elkan Lens and Flora Kosman  were unmarried. Simon and David, who both lived at their parental home with their parents at Bierstraat 30a in Den Haag and both were working as waiter by profession.

Simon Lens arrived 3 October 1942 in Westerbork, presumably from a Jewish Labour camp in the Northern Netherlands but it is unknown from which camp. In the night of 2/3 October 1942 (Yom Kipur) all Jewish Labour camps were "emptied" on orders of the German occupiers and all forced labourers were taken to Westerbork on foot or otherwise. 

On 5 October 1942 Simon was put on transport to Auschwitz and it appeared that his brother Israel also was deported in that same transport; he had arrived from the labour camp Mantinge in Drenthe on 3 October and in the context of the "reunification" with his family from Den Haag in Westerbork, they were "reunited" on transport to Auschwitz now.

The transport of over 2000 deportees, including the first forwarding of the 10.000 persons from the Jewish Labour camps, made a stop at Kozel, a place ±80 km west from Auschwitz. There, 550 boys and men between 15 and 50 years were forced to leave the train to be deployed als forced labourers in the surrounding labour camps of Auschwirtz

Most likely, Simon Lens belonged to that group of 550 men who were deployed ad forced labourers. It is not known were Simon ended up and when exactly he lost his life. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice after the war has ordered the Municipality of Den Haag to draw up a certificate of death for Simon Lens, in which has  been established that he has died on 31 August 1943 in Mid Europe.

Sources included the Municipality of Den Haag, family registration card of Elkan Lens, death certificate for Simon Lens C3827, the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Simon Lens and the wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.

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