Heinz Levy was born 29 April 1904 in Hannover as son of Abraham Ludwig Levy and Sophia Berg. Also his younger sister Rena Dina was born in Hannover. His parents ans sister were present in Amsterdam on 22 April 1936 at his wedding to Henriette (Jetty) Gompers. She was a daughter of Hartog Gompers and Johanna Levie van Berg.
After their wedding, Heinz and Henriette moved into a house at Prinsengracht 653 1st stock in Amterdam, where in 1939 also Heinz’ parents and sister came living in. In that year, on 3 July 1939, also their daughter Yolanda Natalie was born.
Heinz followed in the footsteps of his inlaws Gompers and became a shopkeeper in furs. Also his brother-in-law Yassef Pardovitch, who was married to Henriette’s sister Hendrika, traded in furs. His father Abraham Levy had been a teacher in Hannover at the seminary but was also a bookbinder and carpenter.
Heinz Levy had an exemption from deportation given by the Jewish Council, a “Sperre”, He had this job as inspector and employee of the department X at Lijnbaansgracht 366, where the the general secretariat of the Jewish Council was located. “De Gids”, a magazine those days, mentioned the task of this subsection as follows: “Updating and Control of the general cartotheque and the Province cartotheque” (in the “Province Cartotheque were data of all Jews who had not (yet) been evacuated to Amsterdam).His wife Henriette and daughter Yolanda were therefore exempted from deportation for the time being too.
In the summer of 1943, when a very large part of the Dutch Jews had already been deported, the right to exist of the Jewish Council had been affected in a proportionate way. Many Jewish Council functions and the associated “Sperres” were abolished. The last group of Jewish Council staff ended up on exemption lists, and had a document as proof of this: the so-called “Ausnahme-Bescheinigung” which was also mentioned on top of the Jewish Council work-cards as “Au-Be”.
Similarly, the Heinz Levy family was taken to Westerbork on 24 July 1943, where they stayed in barrack 63. However, due to his work for the Jewish Council in section X on the Lijnbaansgracht in Amsterdam, he and his wife and daughter got in Westerbork the so-called “Ausnahme-Bescheinigung” with number Au-Be 2822 Wbk 60, as a result of which they were again exempted from deportation and were even discharged from Westerbork on 6 September 1943 and allowed to return to Amsterdam. However, not for long: on 29 September 1943 the Heinz Levy family was taken again to Westerbork where they now stayed in barrack 64. It is certain that Heinz Levy also performed duties on behalf of the Jewish Council in Westerbork.
With the last transport of 16 November 1943, the Levy family eventually has been deported to Auschwitz. On arrival there on 19 November, Henriette Levy-Gompers and her 4-year old daughter Yolanda Natalie were immediately killed. Heinz Levy however, was selected as a still usuable forced labourer.
It is not known where he has been deployed and where and when exactly Heinz Levy lost his life. It was therefore that the Dutch Ministry of Justice after the war ordered the municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a certificate of death for Heinz Levy, in which is established that he had died in the surroundings of Auschwitz on 31 March 1944.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Heinz Levy, Henriette Gompers and Yolanda Natalie Levy; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Heinz Levy, Henriette Levy-Gompers and Yolanda Natalie Levy; the publication “Vermoedelijk op transport” (presumably on transport), re Sperre and Ausnahme-Bescheinigung; the book “De oorlog die Hitler Won” by H. Wielek 1947 re Ausnahme-Bescheinigung; certificate of death Amsterdam for Heinz Levy, Cert. nr. 302 in register A86- folio 52 dated 14 September 1951 and Database Joods Biografisch Woordenboek/Heinz Levy.