David Hartog Cohen was the youngest of the three children of Joseph Cohen and Frederika Gozina Godschalk and was born 22 August 1912 in Gorredijk. On 7 January 1921 he moved with his parents, brother and sister to Breedstraat 58 in Leeuwarden. David Hartog became a baker and confectioner by trade and up from November 1927 he went to six or seven cities in the Netherlands, where he found employment with various employers.
Only on 25 March 1942 David Hartog Cohen married at the age of 29 in Amsterdam Flora Reindorp, who was born in Zaandam on 21 May 1914 as a daughter of Jacob Reindorp and Gonda Coster. Flora’s parents runned a poulterer business at Weesperstraat 90 in Amsterdam. David and Flora had no children.
When David Hartog was still unmarried, he worked in a number of Dutch cities as a baker and confectioner. So he left Leeuwarden then on 8 November 1927 for Amsterdam, but found jobs too in Groningen, Dordrecht, Maastricht, Deventer and Rotterdam, where he eventually arrived on 20 January 1939 and came living in with his sister Saartje at Bijlwerffstraat 32a, who lived there with her husband after she was married on 2 August 1933 to the R.C. teacher Johannes Anthonius Schouten.
On 12 August 1940 David Hartog left Rotterdam for Amsterdam, where he found living space in the Sint Antoniebreestraat 63 2nd floor with Marcus (Max) Peereboom, a son of Jozef Peereboom and his family. At that address, also the Nieuw Israelitic Weekblad was located there and which was printed by Messrs. Joachimsthal. David Hartog moved again 1 February 1941 to Valkenburgerstraat 161 1st floor where he found lodging with the Hijman Stad family. Per 1 April 1942, after his wedding to Flora Reindorp in March 1942, they moved into an own house at Weesperstraat 94 2nd stock.
On 16 July 1942, David Hartog Cohen and his wife Flora Reindorp have responded to a call for the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz”, the provision of additional work in Germany (call numbers 2897 and 2898), and they, plus another 930 people, went on transport to Auschwitz. On arrival there on 23 of 24 July, David and Flora were put to work as forced labourers, in- or outside the camp.
The registers of Auschwitz are clear, that Flora was in the camp as Flora Cohen but it is not known under what circumstances, where and when she lost he life. The Ministry of Justice therefore ordered the Municipality of Amsterdam in 1950 to draw up a certificate of death for Flora Cohen-Reindorp, in which has been established that she has died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
Also David Hartog Cohen was put to work as forced labourer, in- or outside the camp, which is not known. However, the “Sterbebücher” (death books) of Auschwitz show that he has lost his life of has been killed there already on 10 September 1942, which was unknown after the war. The Ministry of Justice therefore ordered the City of Amsterdam in 1950, to draw up also a certificate of death for David Hartog Cohen, in which was formally established that he has died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
Sources include the website Alle Friezen, family registration card of Joseph Cohen; City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Jacob Reindorp, archive cards of David Hartog Cohen and Flora Reindorp; website Joods Amsterdam/Sint Antoniebreestraat 63; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of David Hartog Cohen and Flora Reindorp; website Auschwitz Prisoners/Museum/Auschwitz-Birkenau/David Hartog Cohen and Flora Cohen; the wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl; certificates of death, made out on in Amsterdam op 20 July 1950 for David Hartog Cohen, nr. 269 from the register A43-folio 47 and for Flora Cohen-Reindorp on 4 August 1950, nr. 548 from the register A44-folio 93.