Abraham Coe, born on 12 March 1896 at Nieuwe Heerengracht 175 in Amsterdam, was a son of butcher Isaac Marcus Coe and Betje Wittenburg. Abraham also apprenticed to learn his father's trade: he tóó became a butcher. On 7 April 1921, he married Marianne Brilleslijper in Amsterdam, born on 30 May 1901 as a daughter of Liepman Brilleslijper and Theresia de Swarte. The Coe-Brilleslijper couple had two children, namely: Isaac Louis (Jacques) in 1923 and Theresia Elisabeth (Treesje) in 1937.
After his marriage in April 1921, Abraham and his wife Marianne moved into living accommodation at Weesperstraat 121, with Samuel Swaab and his wife Rachel Cohen; they were the parents of Machiel Swaab, who had married Marianne's sister Duifje Brilleslijper.
At the other hand, the Felix archives of Antwerp show that Abraham Coe was registered on 31 January 1923 at the address Belpairestraat 103 in Berchem as an unmarried (?) butcher's man. Perhaps to explore what possibilities there might be for him and his family in Belgium.
On 2 February 1923, file no. 11006 from the Berchem dossier of foreigners shows that the registration in Berchem in 1923 was not intended for permanent residence in Belgium. Abraham Coe was therefore not registered in the Population Register of Berchem. It is not known whether he stayed with family or lived there alone.
As far as could be determined from the residence cards from the Amsterdam City Archives, Abraham Coe was probably registered before April 1923 at the address Nieuwe Keizersgracht 27 in Amsterdam, where he lodged with Sara Levin and her husband Andries Aandagt. Abraham's stay in Berchem will probably not have been longer than about 1 ½ to 2 months or even shorter.
His mother Betje Wittenburg, widowed from his father Isaac Marcus Coe, also lived in at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 27 with Sara Levin. On 12 April 1923, Abraham left the Nieuwe Keizersgracht for the Manegestraat 8, 1st floor, where his parents-in-law Liepman Brilleslijper and Theresia de Swarte resided.
On 6 June 1923, his mother Betje Wittenburg moved from the Nieuwe Keizersgracht to the Nieuwe Kerkstraat 117 ground level in Amsterdam. She left there on 1 January 1930 for Bloemendaal where she passed away on 10 December 1930 “in the house in Bloemendaal near Santpoort”. (reported by the park rangers Mooiweer and van der Molen on 11 December 1930 at the Civil Registry of the municipality of Bloemendaal).
After staying with his parents-in-law, Abraham, Marianne and their meantime born son Isaac Louis, moved into a house at Weesperstraat 107 on 3 December 1924. They then lived on 26 August 1925 at Molukkenstraat 90, 1st floor, where also the Synagogue of Rechouwous was located at no. 89 and where butcher Abraham Coe was elected secretary of the Society Rechouwous on 8 November 1925. (source website Jewish Amsterdam/Molukkenstraat 89 and 90 – Dutch language only).
But even before his election as secretary of Rechouwous, the Coe family moved on 30 September 1925 to Roetersstraat 19 ground level, where Abraham had his butcher's shop. And still three more moves followed in the city: to Paardekraalstraat 2 ground level, to Transvaalstraat 58 II and on 5 December 1929 to the ground floor of no. 58. They lived there for almost two more years until Abraham Coe moved with his family to Leistraat 22 in Utrecht on 13 October 1931 and changed in that city his profession: from butcher he became a metal worker. And another daughter was born there on 22 July 1937, Theresia Elisabeth Coe, also named Treesje.
On 16 August 1942, the family received a call to report at Westerbork. However, the Jewish Council granted them a “temporary reset of date of deportation”. (source: Raymund Schutz: The date and "JR" written in blue pencil on their registration cards refers to the reset of deportation by the Jewish Council. The Sperre system – exemption system - with stamp, was only introduced in September 42. See Chapter 3, Vermoedelijk op Transport – Dutch language only).
However, during the large-scale raids the Germans organized at the beginning of October 1942, Abraham Coe, his wife and both children were still arrested and taken to Westerbork, where they arrived somewhere between 3 and 5 October 1942. Because at the same time the Jewish labor camps in the Northern Netherlands were liquidated too by the German occupier and all forced laborers were transferred to Westerbork, where also their families were taken to for the so-called “family reunification”, there was great chaos in the camp. As a result, it has not been recorded in which barrack the Coe family ended up.
But on 23 October 1942, the entire family plus 984 other victims were deported to Auschwitz. The deportation train made a stopover in Cosel, a place located approximately 80 km west of Auschwitz, where 170 men, fit for work were forced brutally by the Germans to leave the train. They were put to work in the surrounding forced labor camps in Upper Silesia.
Abraham Coe and his 18-year-old son Isaac Louis were among that group of 170 boys and men. Those who remained on the train, including Abraham's wife and daughter, Marianne Coe-Brilleslijper and 5-year-old Theresia Elisabeth Coe, were transported onwards to Auschwitz. Upon arrival there on 26 October 1942, both were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz Birkenau.
From Cosel, most of the group of 170 men – including Abraham Coe and his son Isaac Louis Coe, followed the route to St. Annaberg. The route to camps where they stayed successively was from St. Annaberg to Niederkirch, Sakrau, Eichtal, Ottmuth, Klein Mangersdorf, Königshütte, and Johannsdorf, then to Blechhammer or to the Ressort Gross Rosen; some were sent to Bismarckhütte and Auschwitz.
It is not known exactly where Abraham Coe and his son Isaac Louis ultimately ended up. It is also not known exactly when they died and under what circumstances. That is why the Dutch Authorities determined after the war, partly based on research by the Red Cross, that Abraham Coe and Isaac Louis Coe could no longer be alive after 31 March 1944.
The Ministry of Justice subsequently commissioned the Municipality of Utrecht to draw up a death certificate for Abraham Coe and his son Isaac Louis Coe, which states that both died on 31 March 1944 in Mid-Europe. (read also “More about the transport of 23 October 1942 from Westerbork”).The municipality of Utrecht also drew up death certificates for Marianne Coe-Brilleslijper and 5-year-old Treesje Coe, which record that both died in Auschwitz on 26 October 1942.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Isaac Marcus Coe (1851), Abraham Coe (1896) and Liepman Brilleslijper; archive cards of Abraham Coe, Marianne Brilleslijper, Isaac Louis Coe and Theresia Elisabeth Coe; the Amsterdam birth certificate no. 2963 dated 13 Mar 1896 for Abraham Coe; website openarchieven.nl/wedding certificate Coe x Brilleslijper; the Felix archive/Antwerp dossier of Foreigners 11006 of Berchem for Abraham Coe; various (9) residence cards of Amsterdam; website Joods Amsterdam/Molukkenstraat 90 (dutch language only); Memorial book Joods Utrecht 1940-1945 pages 256-257 and 258 (Dutch language only); the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/23 Oct 1942; Population Registry of Utrecht/lists of evacuated Jewish Homes; website Het Utrechts Archief, death certificates no’s 147 and 148 of 18 January 1951 for Abraham Coe and Isaac Louis Coe and the no’s 1384 and 1382 of 22 June 1951 for Marianne Coe-Brilleslijper and Theresia Elisabeth Coe, and the archives of the Dutch Red Cross/Publication Auschwiz part III – deportation transports during the so-called Cosel period, edited October 1952.