Roosje Velleman was a daughter of Levie Velleman and Rebecca Italiaander. She was born on 7 April in Amsterdam and married there Maurits Cohen on 27 June 1917, a son of Arie Cohen and Eva van de Kar. Maurits earned his living as a rag dealer and clothes man. The couple had two children, namely Arie, who survived the Holocaust and Rebecca, who was born on 21 February 1920 but who was murdered with her husband during the Shoah in Sobibor, just like also her parents.
After being married in June 1917, Roosje and Maurits moved into a house in the Lange Houtstraat 27 in Amsterdam but they stayed there not for long: on 15 December 1917 they moved to Bethaniënstraat 9 1st floor in the old city centre of Amsterdam, where both their children were born. It was not a healthy living environment there because in 1930 the 1st and 2nd floors of Bethaniënstraat 9 were declared uninhabitable. Already on 20 May 1924 they left for a better home in the Derde Oosterparkstraat 1 3rd floor, then thereafter in July 1926 to Eerste Oosterparkstraat 160 and in October 1930 to Gerard Doustraaat 162. Three years later, in February 1934 they lived at two more house numbers beyond, at nr. 164.
In February 1937, according to nr.102 of the examination regulations for the National Militia, their son Arie Cohen was declared permanently unfit for militia service due to a speech impediment. Meanwhile, he became working as a upholsterer by profession and he lived at the time of the mandatory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands not anymore at home with his parents, but at Afrikanerplein 18 3rd floor with the Cristiaan Outs family and his wife Sara de Swarte, the parents of among others Estella Outs, (born 17 April 1922), to whom he was married on 1 April 1942.
Arie and Estelle were both exempted from deportation by the Jewish Council, “because of Wehrmacht”; they had exemptions stamps 61881 and 61882 and in relation to their exemption from deportation, they belonged to the so-called “Rüstungsjuden” (clothing, fur, rubber raincoats, diamond, old metals, rags), with exemption numbers from the series 60000 till 80000. In the end, the Germans declared in the summer of 1943 all exemptions null and void but up from November 1943, the Outs family belongd to the so-called “Blauwe Ruiters” (Blue tabs), a group of privileged Jews who did not had to wear the yellow Jewstar, which was also confirmed on their I.D. They all have survived the war and after the war they lived again at their previous address. In 1954, Arie and Estella have emigrated to London in Canada.
The Blue Tabs.
Calmeyer owes the credit for the initiative to introduce the group of "blue tabs", i.e. those privileged Jews, whose Jewish Council registration cards received such a tab at the Zentralstelle. They did not have to wear the yellow Jew-star which was confirmed on their identity card.
It fared less well for Arie's sister Rebecca Cohen, who married on 30 October 1941 Levi van der Sluis, a son of Ephraim van der Sluis and Cornelia Bonewit. Their daughter Cornelia was born on 22 February 1942. A hiding place was found for her in Limmen, province of Noord Holland, which enabled her to survive the war. Although Rebecca and her husband Levi were "gesperrt" (exempted from deportation) by the Jewish Council, they were arrested during the raid on 25 May 1943, carried off to Westerbork and deported to Sobibor, where they were murdered in the gas chamber on 4 June 1943.
It also fared less well for the parents, Roosje Velleman and her husband Maurits Cohen. However, in the summer of 1942 Maurits managed to get a job as a bread deliverer at the Jewish Council, which resulted in him and his wife to obtain an exemption “Lokaal A” (LokA - Jewish Bussines)on 19 July 1942. But on 2 April 1943, after a summons, they still were both carried off to Westerbork where they had to wait in barrack 72 for their deportation to the East. On 6 April they were deported to Sobibor and on arrival there on 9 April 1943 they were immediately murdered in the gas chambers.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Levie Velleman, Christiaan Outs and Maurits Cohen, archive cards of Roosje Velleman and Maurits Cohen; the file cab inet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Roosje Cohen-Velleman, Maurits Cohen, Arie Cohen, Estella Cohen-Outs, Rebecca van der Sluis-Cohen and Levi van der Sluis; the book “Ondergang” volume II by Dr. J. Presser, pages 83 and 84, 4th edition 1964, Blue Tabs (Blauwe Ruiters).