Jacob Lewin was a son of Chaim Jossel Lewin from Bauska in Russia and Massa Mendelsohn from Friedrichstadt in Letland. He was born on 24 March 1903 in Amsterdam and married 23 December 1931 Sara David, who was born in Rotterdam on 19 February 1903 as daughter of Hartog David and Sophia van der Kruk. On 11 November 1935 their son Paul Igor François was born.
Jacob Lewin and Sara David lived after their wedding in the Uiterwaardenstraat 298 2nd floor in Amsterdam South. For a short time, the family moved in on 5 April 1940 with father Hartog David in the Uiterwaardenstraat 334 parterre, and one month later, on 6 May 1940 they moved to Citroenstraat 59 in Den Haag.
Jacob and Sara eventually have survived the Holcaust by going into hiding. On 11 June 1945 Jacob popped up in Belgium and Sara was in Brussels on 15 June 1944. According to the State Inspection on the Peoples Registry, Sara stayed on 10 June 1947 in the Groot Hoefijzerlaan 32 in Wassenaar and Jacob Lewin on that same date in the Hoekwaterstraat 36 in Voorburg.
Their son Paul and another 14 children were accommodated in the Children’s Home Deenik and Dermout “De Viersprong” in Driebergen. On 6 January 1944 during a raid on several dwellings in Driebergen, Jews were arrested. Fifteen children from the children’s home “De Viersprong” were thrown into a car and carried off. The then 8-year old Paul Lewin ended up in Westerbork on 12 January and was locked up in the penal barrack 67 and on 25 January he was put on transport to Auschwitz. On arrival there on 28 January 1944 he was immediately killed in the gaschambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card of Hartog David; the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Jacob Lewin, Sara David and Chaim Jossel Lewin; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Jacob Lewin, Sara Lewin-David and Paul Igor François Lewin.