Louis van Zwanenbergh was the fourth of the five children of Abraham van Zwanenbergh and Susanna Zeckendorf. He was born in Veghel on 23 January 1881 and moved to Rotterdam, together with his parents and siblings on 13 June 1899. His parents’ family also consisted of his brothers Jacob, Barend Benjamin and Zadok and a sister Elisabeth. Barend Benjamin however passed away at the age of 34 in 1914 in Wormen, municipality of Apeldoorn, due to cancer. Louis’ others sibs remained unmarried.
Louis van Zwanenbergh was commission agent in live stock. He married at the age of 43 the 35-year old Johanna van Straten in Rotterdam on 22 May 1924. She was a daughter of Manuel van Straten and Helena Frank and born on 6 January 1889 in Herwijnen. Louis and Johanna had three children together: Susanna in 1925, Helena in 1927 and Abraham in 1928. Johanna’s mother, Helena Frank, died 18 May 1895 in Herwijnen and her father, Manuel van Straten on 2 August 1915 in Herwijnen too.
After the passing of her father, Johanna left Herwijnen for Rotterdam on 2 September 1915 where she started as an apprentice nurse in the City Hospital at Coolsingel 63. On 2 September 1919 she left Rotterdam for Amsterdam to be employed as a nurse in the “Oude Mannen en Vrouwen Ziekenhuis” (the Old Men and Women Hospital) at Nieuwe Kerkstraat 135. A few months later, per 19 January 1920, she had a room with Mozes Godfried at the Jonas Daniel Meijerplein 12, but she left again for Rotterdam on 5 June 1920, where she found room in the Jonker Fransstraat 27b with her brother-in-law Salomon Cohen, who was married to her sister Sophia van Straten.
After some more relocations of the Salomon Cohen family, where Johanna moved with them too, Johanna and her husband Louis van Zwanenbergh after their weddingday in 1924 moved into a house at the Nieuwe Crooswijkseweg 69; a relocation followed in 1928 to Oost Zeedijk 15b. Then Louis van Zwanenbergh became the main tenant of a house at Voorschoterlaan 69a in the Kralingen-Crooswijk district on 5 November 1931, where on 30 September 1935 also his sibs Jacob, Elisabeth and Zadok van Zwanenberg came living in.
On 29 April 1937, after Louis’ brother Jacob had passed away in Apeldoorn on 26 January 1937, all members of the family Van Zwanenbergh moved to Noordsingel 91 near the Agniese district of Rotterdam, which appeared to be later also their last known address in the Netherlands.
All members of the Van Zwanenbergh family, who lived at Noordsingel 9a, were carried off to Westerbork in the early days of October 1942: Louis’ spouse Johanna van Straten and he children Susanna, Helena and Abraham, but also Louis’ siblings Zadok and Elisabeth van Zwanenbergh, All were registered in Westerbork ± 3 October 1942. On 12 October they were all deported to Auschwitz and on arrival there on 15 October 1942 immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
However, Louis van Zwanenbergh appears to have been brought into Westerbork only on 27 February 1943. He then came from the Jewish Hospital at Schietbaanlaan 42 in Rotterdam, where he had probably been admitted sometime in November 1942. And in Westerbork, he ended up in the camp hospital again, in barrack 82.
From notes made on his registration card from the Jewish Council file cabinet, it appeared that he was still in Westerbork on 5 November 1942 – afterwards he was apparently transferred to the Jewish Hosepital in Rotterdam, from which he was discharged on 27 February 1943 and returned to Westerbork. On 4 March 1943, his luggage was also taken to hospital barrack 82 where was staying and on 10 March, Louis van Zwanenbergh was deported to Sobibor, where, on arrival on 13 March 1943, he was immediately killed in the gas chambers there.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of Abraham van Zwanenbergh, Louis van Zwanenbergh, Johanna van Straten and Salomon Cohen; website wiewaswie.nl/ Manuel van Straten and Helena Frank; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Louis van Zwanenbergh, Johanna van Zwanenbergh-van Straten, Susanna, Helena and Abraham van Zwanenbergh, Elisabeth van Zwanenbergh and Zadok van Zwanenbergh; wikipedia website, Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the book en het boek “Vernietigingskamp Sobibor”(Extermination camp Sobibor) by Jules Schelvis/transport list 10 March 1943/Louis van Zwanenbergh