Levie Cohen was one of the twelve children of the butcher and livestock trader Izaak Cohen and Elizabeth van Lier. He was born in Rotterdam on 9 November 1877 and he was a commercial traveller by trade. He lived at home with his parents, till he married the 24-year old Saartje Pels in Rotterdam on 24 September 1902, a daughter of Jacob Nathans Pels-van der Kamp and Rachel Hart, who was born on 25 January 1878 in Delfzijl and lived with her parents in Rotterdam. The couple Cohen-Pels had three children, namely Isidor on 8 July 1903, Jacob Richard on 21 November 1905 and Salomon on 2 November 1908.
Isidor Cohen married most likely in the year 1925 or 1926 the daughter of the butcher Charle Nenk and Clara Pruikemaker, Betje Nenk, who was born on 31 July 1900 in Arnhem. The couple Cohen-Nenk then left Rotterdam for Paris, where on 5 November 1926 their daughter Louise Lucienne was born. However Isidor passed away at the age of 24 years in Rotterdam on 21 November 1927 and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery Toepad in Rotterdam.
In the last days of July 1942, Betje Cohen-Nenk and her daughter Louise Lucienne, were taken from their home address Schieweg 254b in Rotterdam to Westerbork and already deported to Auschwitz on 3 October 1942. On arrival both were put to work as forced labourers and at some point, they have lost their lives there, although it is not known exactly when. Therefore the Dutch Ministry of Justice ordered the Municipality of Rotterdam after the war to draw up certificates of death for Betje Cohen-Nenk and for Louise Lucienne Cohen, in which has been established that they both have died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
Levie’s youngest son Salomon married in 1933 the non-Jewish Alida Ada Weeda, from whom he divorced in 1947. Nothing is further known of him. But Jacob Richard, the middle son of Levie Cohen and Saartje Pels, passed away during the years of war. Already in February 1925 he was admitted in the Sint Joris Gasthuis in Delft, a psychiatric hospital, where he stayed till 29 April 1925. However, in December of that same year, he has been admitted again and stayed there many years till he passed away there on 28 September 1942.
Levie’s wife Saartje Pels passed away yet before the war, on 18 March 1937 in Rotterdam and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery Toepad there. A few months after the passing of his wife Saartje, her husband Levie Cohen has been admitted on 19 November 1937 in the Psychiatric Institution Maasoord in Poortugaal. With other Jewish patients and/or Jews in hiding there, Levie spent most of the years of war there. However, one month before war’s end he passed away there on 5 April 1945.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of Izaak Cohen, Levie Cohen, Isidor Cohen en Salomon Cohen (1908; certificates of marriage from Rotterdam for Levie Cohen x Saartje Pels and Salomon Cohen x Alida Ada Weeda; certificate of birth from Arnhem for Betje Nenk; certificates of death from Delft for Jacob Richard Cohen, from Rotterdam for Bethe Cohen-Nenk and Louise Lucienne Cohen; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council registration cards of Betje Cohen Nenk and for Louise Lucienne Cohen and the website Jewish Herritage Rotterdam/Maasoord. (only Dutch Language).