Geertruida Lionni was the sixth child of Levie Lionni and Rosine Coini and was born on 28 August 1883. On 17 April 1912 she married the commercial salesman Leendert Vleeskruijer, who was born in Amsterdam on 17 July 1887 as the son of Wolf Vleeskruijer and Flora Chapon. The couple had one daughter, Flora Louise who was born on 19 March 1919.
Until April 1912, Leendert and his sister Naatje Vleeskruijer lived at home with his parents. After the marriage of Leendert and Geertruida was concluded in 1912, they moved into accommodation at Nieuwe Heerengracht 61, where they lived until October 1930. Then they moved to Andreas Bonnstraat 10 1st floor and on 10 December 1938 to Waalstraat 97 2nd floor in Amsterdam South.
Leendert’s unmarried sister Naatje remained with her mother Flora, even after the death of father Wolf Vleeskruijer in 1927. Naatje and her mother relocated several times. In May 1938 they even lived shortly in The Hague, but at the end of September they returned to Amsterdam and moved into a house at Blasiusstraat 32 ground floor. At the end of June 1940, mother Flora Vleeskruijer-Chapon moved into accommodation at “Pension Blog” on the Plantage Middenlaan 40 upper house, there she passed away on 14 November 1941 and was interred at Muiderberg.
Before Naatje came to live in with her brother Leendert and his wife Geertruida Lionni at Waalstraat 97 II in May 1943, she had changed her address a number of times after returning from The Hague to Blasiusstraat in September 1938. Naatje worked at the Jewish Council as a shorthand typist and the Council had provisionally exempted her from deportation, “because of function”. Yet she was deported to Sobibor on 29 June 1943 and murdered on arrival on 2 July 1943.
Leendert, Geertruida and their daughter Flora Louise lived from December 1938 at Waalstraat 97 2nd floor. Flora Louise first was employed as a saleslady, became later an apprentice nurse and after all Jews in the Netherlands were registered by the Jewish Council in 1941, she became a food supply officer at the Council and, according to a note on her Jewish Council card, she was “exempted from deportation according to list 5/23, although she had not received an official “Sperre”.
Flora Louise Vleeskruijer was arrested on 26 May 1943, when many stamps and exemptions had been declared expired by the Germans. She was carried off to Westerbork, where she ended up in barrack 63. On 1 June 1943 she was deported to Sobibor and immediately murdered in the gas chambers on arrival there on 4 June 1943.
Leendert and Geertruida had previously fallen victim to the persecution of the Jews. On 27 March 1943, both were arrested and taken to Westerbork, where they ended up in barrack 68. Leendert was not officially "gesperrt" but from 11 October 1942 he did work as "bode Amstel 93". (messenger at Amstel 93). At that address, the Central Cultural Committee of the Jewish Council was located. When the Jewish population had to wear the yellow Star of David, they had to buy these stars there. In 1942, the Office Cultural Affairs at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 58 was transferred to the address Amstel 93.(source website joodsamsterdam.nl/amstel – Dutch language only).
On 30 March 1943, Leendert Vleeskruijer and Geertruida Vleeskruijer-Lionni were deported to Sobibor. Upon arrival there on 2 April 1943, both were immediately murdered in the gas chambers. There were no survivors of the transport of a total of 1255 victims.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family registration cards of Levie Lionni (1839), Wolf Vleeskruijer (1863) and Leendert Vleeskruijer (1887); archive cards of Leendert Vleeskruijer, Geertruida Lionni and Flora Louise Vleeskruijer; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Leendert Vleeskruijer, Geertruida Vleeskruijer-Lionni and Flora Louise Vleeskruijer; website Joods Erfgoed Amsterdam/Amstel 93 and the Wikipedia website Jew transports from the Netherlands/30 March 1943 and an addition by a visitor to the website.