Meijer Mug was the middle of three children of the deaf-mute couple Isaäc Mug and Esther Brilleman. He was born in Rotterdam on 11 August 1919 and had an older brother Abraham (1917) and a younger sister Mietje (1923).
His brother Abraham married Mietje Coster in March 1940, a daughter of Barend Coster and Betje van Coevorden. They lived in Doezastraat 29a in Rotterdam, where Abraham was arrested for black-trade on 13 March 1942 and, after being taken into custody by the Rotterdam Police, deported via Kamp Amersfoort to Auschwitz, where he died on 30 September 1942.
Possibly the parents' care for the children was too heavy because his sister Mietje was placed with her grandfather and grandmother Brilleman in Amsterdam in August 1931, where she lived for 1½ years and from where she returned home in January 1933. But already on September 3, 1936, she was placed in the Orthodox Jewish home Beth Dina in Santpoort-Zuid, a home where Jewish girls from disadvantaged backgrounds could receive a safe and virtuous education.
Shortly after his sister's return, the 14-year-old Meijer Mug was placed on 11 April 1934 in the State Educational Institute “De Kruisberg” in Doetinchem. He stayed there until September 1937, but already one year later, on 30 August 1938, Meijer Mug was placed in the State Educational Institute “Op den Berg” at Utrechtseweg 247 in Amersfoort.
Meijer Mug, a merchant and a seafaring man by trade, arrived on 3 July 1940 from Amersfoort in Nijmegen and moved in with the “Aryan” family of Johannes Reinier Kuipers, who was married to Cornelia Hendrika van Driel and lived at Piet Heinstraat 33. Meijer Mug got married to their daughter Elisabeth Kuiper on 6 September 1940 in Nijmegen, who worked as a factory worker in an artificial silk plant. Together they had two children, viz. Esther Cornelia on 26 March 1941 and on 19 September 1942, their son Meijer was born.
On their wedding day, 6 September 1940 Meijer and Elisabeth were registered at their own residential address in Nijmegen: Jan de Wittstraat 79, where their daughter Esther was born. But on 21 July 1942, the Mug family moved in again with the Kuiper family at Piet Heinstraat 33 (because of their mixed marriage forced of not) and there, in September 1942 their son Meijer was born.
Shortly after their move to Piet Heinstraat 33, Meijer Mug, who meantime tried to provide for his family as a merchant, was arrested on 5 August 1942 and taken into custody by means of a an order for preventive detention – a “Schutzhaftbefehl” - and the next day, 6 August sent to the Police Transit Camp Amersfoort, where he was given prisoner number 1213. Unknown however is what “violation” Meijer Mug would have committed against the occupying forces, which could justify his preventive detention (Schutzhaft).
Because of his arrest of early August 1942, Meijer Mug could not attend the birth of his second child, his son Meijer, who was born on 19 September 1942. That time he stayed still in Camp Amersfoort, from where he was transferred a few months later to concentration camp Mauthausen.
On 5 November 1942 Meijer Mug was registered in Mauthausen were he was given prisoner number 13940, but where he eventually lost his life on 22 January 1943. In the certificate of death – “Todfallsaufnahme” - which has been drawn up on 23 January 1943 in Mauthausen, it was stated among others that his occupation was “gold dealer” but about the cause of his death nothing was mentioned.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card of Isaäc Mug; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Meijer Nus (wrong spelled – should be Mug); website ITS Arolson/Schutzhaftbefehl PDL Amersfoort for Meijer Mug; Todfallsaufname (death certificate) for Meijer Mug from Mauthausen; archive of Nijmegen/personal cards of Elisabeth Kuiper and Meijer Mug; residence card Piet Heinstraat 33 Nijmegen; website oorloginnijmegen.nl/wie – page 1078 and further and information from a user of the website (W.Oosterbaan).