Mozes Cohen was the youngest of the four children of Philip Cohen and Mina Eismann. His parents and his three brothers lived in Amsterdam, but in October 1907 they left for Sittard, where on 6 October 1908 Mozes was born. Some time later, after the birth of Mozes, the Cohen family moved on to Belgium, where they have lived in Antwerp and Borgerhout.
On 9 November 1926 Mozes and his parents returned from Borgerhout in Amsterdam and moved into a house in the Boerhaavestraat 56 II. In the meantime, Mozes had become a musician and he travelled a lot. On 10 November 1931, at the age of 23, he left for Batavia in the Dutch East Indies, from where he returned in Amsterdam in December 1932 and moved in with his parents again, who still lived in the Boerhaavestraat.
On 6 May 1933 his parents moved to Nieuwe Prinsengracht 15 3rd floor and Mozes went along and on 4 March 1935 another move followed to Nieuwe Keizersgracht 29. His father, Philip Cohen passed away there on 22 December 1935 and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen.
His mother, Mina Cohen-Eismann, now widowed, left with him for the Camperstraat 48 2nd floor on 26 May 1937, from where Mozes got married on 26 October 1938 with Dora Dreese, who was born on 5 March 1917 in Amsterdam as a daughter of Emanuel Dreese and Marianne Niksborg. After their weddingday, they moved into their own spot at Utrechtsestraat 50 upper-house.
After nearly a year, on 7 September 1939 they moved to Amstel 136, on 21 November 1939 to Thorbeckepllein 4 upper-house, whereafter they moved into an accommodation on the Reguliersgracht 15 ground floor. They stayed there till 4 December 1940 and meantime their son Philip had been born there on 24 May 1940.
After they could live another 10 months in the Camperstraat 34 2nd floor, and then in September 1941 in the Eerste Oosterparkstraat 72 2nd floor and in November 1941 at Plantage Kerklaan 16 2nd floor, their last known address in the Netherlands became Nieuwe Amstelstraat 15 ground floor, where they had moved in since 19 February 1942.
Mozes, Dora and their little son Philip were arrested during the large round-ups of early October 1942 and carried off to Westerbork, where they arrived somewhere between 3 and 5 October. It was a great chaos there, also because all the Jewish labor camps in the Northern Netherlands were liquidated by the Germans at the same time and all Jewish forced labourers arrived those days in Westerbork too to be deported to the East.
The Mozes Cohen family still stayed for some time in Westerbork and on 13 November 1942, after they were housed previously in different sheds, the family had been reunited in barrack 68. Only on 16 Februrary 1943 Mozes Cohen, his wife Dora Dreese and their little son Philip were put on transport to Auschwitz.
This transport, with over 1100 deportees, arrived 19 February 1943 in Auschwitz and Dora Cohen-Dreese and her little son Philip Cohen were immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Mozes Cohen on the contrary, was still selected for forced labour. It is not known where he has been put to work and when and where he exactly has lost his life. Therefore, the Dutch Ministry of Justice after the war ordered the Municipality of Amsterdam, to draw up a certificate of death for Mozes Cohen, in which was established that he has died on 30 April 1943 in Auschwitz.
Sources include the Felix Archive of Antwerp, dossier of foreigners no.155365 for Mina Eismann a.o.; the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Mozes Cohen, Dora Dreese and Philip Cohen (1940); the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Mozes Cohen, Dora Cohen-Dreese and Philip Cohen; death certificates made out in Amsterdam for Mozes Cohen reg.A81-fol.51v-deed 296 dated 5 July 1951, for Dora Cohen-Dreese, reg.A70-fol96-deed 567 dated 4 April 1951 and for Philip Cohen, reg.A70-fol.94v-deed 556 dated 4 April 1951 and the Wikipedia listing jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.