Eliazer van Geuns was a son of Hartog van Geuns and Kaatje van Biene. He was born in Rotterdam on 10 October 1890 but his parents came to Amsterdam already in 1893. He married 27 August 1919 in Amsterdam to Frederika Tas, who was born in the municipality of Nieuwer Amstel on 13 October 1894 as a daughter of Levie Tas and Clara Velt. The Van Geuns couple had two children: in 1921 Hartog was born and in 1922 there was a daughter Clara, who has survived the Holocaust. Eliazer himself, his wife Frederika and their son Hartog have lost their lived during the Shoah.
Eliazer was a coachman by profession, later driver and lived with his wife Frederika after their wedding at Vrolikstraat 281 in Amsterdam. In 1920 removals followed to Joden Breestraat and Uilenburgerstraat but up from 22 August 1922, their final address became Laing’s Nekstraat 26 3rd floor in Amsterdam.
Eliazer van Geuns and his wife Frederika were registered in Westerbork on 30 September 1942 and already put on transport to Auschwitz on 2 October. The transport of 2 October 1942 was a so-called “Kozel-transport”; the train stopped at the station of a place called Kozel, located ± 80 km west from Auschwitz, where of the total group of 1014 deportees, 160 boys and men between 15 and 50 years of age were forced to leave the train, to be deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labor camps of Auschwitz. Those, who remained in the train, were transported onwards to Auschwitz, to be killed there. Also Frederika van Geuns-Tasl met that fate: on arrival there on 5 October 1942, she was immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Eliazer van Geuns also belonged to the group of 160 men who were forcedly taken from the train. It appeared only in 2015 that he eventually has ended up as Jewish forced labourer in the "Reichs Autobahnlager St. Annaberg” in Upper Silesia in Poland. After the war, it was clear that Isaac van Gigh had not survived the Shoah, but not where, when and under what circumstances he had lost his life. Therefore, on order of the Ministry of Justice after the war, the Municipality of Amsterdam had drawn up a certificate of death for Eliazer van Geuns, in which was established that he has died on 20 December 1942 in Schoppinitz.
However, during a research in 2015 in Poland to victims of among others the labour camp “Reichs Autobahnlager St.Annaberg” in Upper Silesia, several certificates of death were found, including those of Eliazer van Geuns. This document showed that he has died 5 January 1943 in labour camp St. Annaberg. On the death certificate is mentioned as an official cause of death as “gangrene and hart weakness” (Gangraen und Herzschwäche).
By establishing the date of death of Eliazer van Geuns however, the official Dutch date of death and place of 20 December 1942 in Schoppinitz is maintained, a juridical date and place established after the war by the Dutch Department of Justice.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Eliazer van Geuns and Hartog van Geuns, archive cards of Eliazer van Geuns, Frederika Tas and Hartog van Geuns; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Eliazer van Geuns and Frederika van Geuns-Tas; Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and Edward Haduch, Kedzierzyn-Kozle (Poland), the death certificate of Eliazer van Geuns from the Peoples Registry (Standesamt) Annaberg.