Machiel Lionni, born on 26 April 1878 in Amsterdam as the 4th child of Levie Lionni and Eva van Praag, has married in Weesp on 23 June 1903 Rosine Coini, who was born in Amsterdam on 8 October 1881 as a daughter of Hartog Coini and Rebecke van Beem. The Lionni-Coini couple had two daughters, viz. Eveline in 1904 and Betty in 1911.
On 26 April 1909, Machiel, his wife Rosine and their little daughter Eveline left fot Antwerp, where the family lived at the Lange Herentalsestraat 66 and where Machiel found a job as a diamond cleaver. However, already mid December 1909 the family returned to Amsterdam, where they found living space at the Langestraat 50 1st floor. After relocations to Paardekraalstraat and Pretoriusstraat, they lived at Dongestraat 23 ground floor in the River district of Amsterdam-South since 30 July 1935
Rosine Lionni-Coini however passed away on 2 February 1940, only 58 years old. She was interred in the Jewish Cemetery at Muiderberg on 4 February 1940.
Meantime daughter Betty (born in 1911) had found a job as an office clerk and on 18 June 1941 she married in Amsterdam Robert Walter Heynemann. He was born on 2 April 1911 in Laubach, Germany, as a son of Sally Heynemann and Hulda Haas, who lived in Amsterdam already since 1933. After the marriage was concluded, Betty and Robert moved into a house at Jekerstraat 75. By later seeking refuge in Belgium, they survived the Holocaust; they have been found again and registered there on 9 June 1945.
The younest daughter Eveline Lionni had completed a commercial education at the OHS, the Public Trading School, possessed her diploma shorthand typing, by which she found a job too. After being registered at the Jewish Council, she got this job as a shorthand typist at the Jewish Council department "Bureau voor de Vertrekkenden, kledingvoorziening en uitgifte kampartikelen" (Office for the departing, clothing supply and issuing camp articles), which was located at Oude Schans 74. Thence, because of function, she was “gesperrt bis auf weiteres”- exempted from deportation until further notice.
It might be very well possible, that Eveline in 1943, together with her sister and brother-in-law, went to Belgium in order to escape deportation. However in the archives of the Red Cross, there is a letter, nr. 12813, which shows that Eveline Lionnis has been arrested at Avenue du Diamant in Brussels and transferred to assemble camp Caserne Dossin in Mechelen on 6 August 1943. From there, she has been put on transport to Auschwitz with Convoy 22A with prison number 132 and upon arrival on 23 September 1943 murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The widower Machiel Lionni has been carried off from the “Joodsche Schouwburg” (the Jewish Theatre) to Westerbork, in a transport of 13 to 14 January 1943, registered there on 14 January 1943 and housed in barrack 68. After nearly 2 ½ months, on 23 March, Machiel Lionni was put on transport to Sobibor, where upon arrival there he was immediately murdered in the gas chambers on 26 March 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Machiel Lionni and Levie Lionni (1839); archive cards of Machiel Lionni, of Betty and Eveline Lionni and Robert Walter Heynemann; the Felixarchive Antwerp/Machiel Lionni/Antwerp Dossier of Foreigners nr.129913; Various Amsterdam residence cards; website wiewaswie.nl/marriage Machiel Lionni x Rosine Coini; website stenenarchief.nl/grave Rosine Lionni-Coini; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Machiel Lionni, Eveline Lionni, Betty Heynemann-Lionni and Robert Walter Heynemann; website Joods Amsterdam/ Oude Schans 74; Red Cross Archives/Transportlist Amsterdam-Westerbork of 13 to 14 January 1943 (Joodsche Schouwburg)-page 3, number 64; website ITS Arolson/ victim list with family name Lionni, including Eveline Lionni; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/23 Maarch 1943 and the certificate of death made out in Amsterdam for Eveline Lionni from the A-register 119 – folio 9verso, no. 53 dated 30 November 1963.