Abraham Ludwig Levy was born 18 June 1871 in Oberstityko in Poland as son of Max Levy and Rahel Tawrogi. He married 8 July 1903 in the Polish village of Szamocin Sophie Berg born there on 14 March 1883, a daughter of ? Berg and Nathalie Lina. The Levy couple left Poland for Hamburg in Germany, where both their children were born: Heinz in 1904 and Rena Dina in 1910.
The family arrived from Hannover in Amsterdam, where their son Heinz married 22 April 1936 Henriette Gompers, a daughter of Hartog Gompers and Johanna Levy van Berg. They moved into a house at Prinsengracht 6563 1st floor in Amsterdam, where also Heinz’ parents and sister came living in. And there in 1939 their daughter Yolanda Natalie was born.
Abraham Ludwig Levy was a bookbinder, a carpenter and had been a teacher at the seminary at Hannover. Abraham, his wife Sophie and daughter Rena Dina moved 17 May 1939 from Prinsengracht 653 1st stock to Amstelkade 163 1st floor in Amsterdam-South. Per early June 1940 they had living in the widow Recha de Beer-Adler from Kelsterbach in Germany. She lived in ten months with the Levy family at Amstelkade but then moved to another address in the city.
The Abraham Levy family was registered per 1 December 1939 as being Stateless in the Amsterdam Peoples Registry. They stayed at Amstelkade till they had to move forcedly to the Transvaal District in Amsterdam-East, where they ended up in the Hofmeyrstraat 4 3rd floor.
However, all members of the Levy family had a “Sperre”, an exemption from deportation until further notice, issued by the Jewish Council and they had different jobs at the Jewish Council: Abraham Levy worked since 16 July 1942 at the General Service of the Council at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 58 for the department of bread supply. Furthermore, he was “gesperrt” (exempted) because his son Heinz was working as an employee of the Jewish Council in Camp Westerbork. Because of that, also Abraham’s wife Sophie Berg had an exemption for the time being “as mother of an employee of the Jewish Council in Westerbork”. And Rena Dina Levy had a “Sperre” too, because of function: the worked for the Jewish Council at Lijnbaansgracht 366 in Amsterdam doing correspondence and administration.
On 20 June 1943 a large-scale and secretly prepared raid was held in Amsterdam-East, at which eventually more than 5500 Jews were arrested and carried off to Westerbork, including the Abraham Levy family. Abraham, his wife Sophie and daughter Rena Dina were put on transport from Westerbork to Sobibor on 20 July, where Abraham and Sophie on arrival there on 23 July 1943 were immediately killed.
However on arrival there, Rena Dina had been selected for the SS labor camp Dorohucza, located south-west from Sobibor. It is not known when Rena Dina exactly has lost her life there. Therefore, her date of death was established by the Dutch Ministry of Justice on 16 June 1950 as in Dorohusk on 30 November 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Abraham Ludwig Levy, Sophie Berg, Rena Natalie Levy, Recha de Beer-Adler and Heinz Levy; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Abraham Ludwig Levy, Sophie Levy-Berg, Rena Natalie Levy and Heinz Levy; certificate of death for Rena Dina Levy, certificate nr. 91 in register A39-fol.17 dated 16 June 1950 and genelogical additions of a visitor of the website.