Salomon Cohen was the second of the three children of Joseph Cohen and Frederika Gozina Godschalk. He was born on 14 July 1907 in Gorredijk and he was - just like his father - butcher by trade. He married 10 June 1936 in Leeuwarden the daughter of Gerson de Wilde and Schoontje Dwinger, Roosje de Wilde. She was born there on 22 July 1913 and on 21 October 1936 their daughter Sonja Rita Cohen was born there.
After Salomon and Roosje were married, he changed trade and became a commercial traveller. They went living at Groninger Straatweg 5 in Leeuwarden. In June 1937 the family moved to Beethovenstraat 19, where they have lived in with his parents, Joseph Cohen and Frederika Godschalk. Presumably at the beginning of the war they have moved to an own address in Leeuwarden, the Mozartstraat 63.
In the early days of October 1942, the Salomon Cohen family was arrested and carried off to Westerbork, There, they had to stay till 30 October, when they were put on transport that date to Auschwitz. The transport contained “only” 659 deportees, of whom during a stop at Kozel, located ± 80 km west from Auschwitz, another 200 men between 15 and 50 years were forced to leave the train, who would be deployed as forced labourers in the surrounding labor camps of Auschwitz.
Those, who remained in the train were transported onwards to Auschwitz, usually to be killed there upon arrival. Roosje Cohen-de Wilde and her daughter Sonja Rita Cohen have arrived in Auschwitz on 2 November 1942 and were immediately killed then in the gas chambers of Auschwitz Birkenau.
It has been appeared from the registers of Auschwitz Prisoners, that Salomon Cohen also has arrived in Auschwitz and that he was not part of the group of 200 men who had to leave the train in Kozel. Salomon was selected in Auschwitz to “work” but it is not known where he eventually ended up, and where and when he lost his life.
Therefore, the Ministry of Justice ordered the Municipality of Leeuwarden after the war, to draw up a certificate of death for Salomon Cohen, in which is established that he has died in Mid Europe on 31 March 1944.
Sources among others: website Alle Friezen, family registration cards of Joseph Cohen and Gerson de Wilde; website wiewaswie/peoples registry/family registration card Leeuwarden for Salomon Cohen; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Salomon Cohen, Roosje Cohen-de Wilde and Sonja Rita Cohen; website Auschwitz Prisoners/Museum/Auschwitz Birkenau; certificate of deatn nr. 40 dated 20 Jan 1952 for Salomon Cohen, made out in Leeuwarden due to the Ministry of Justice and the Wikipedia listing of jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.