Meijer Salomons, who was born on 25 December 1863 in Amsterdam, was a son of Mechiel Salomons (1828-1911) and Ester Abraham Susan (1826-1900). He was the youngest of the five; his brothers and sisters were Fransje from 1853, Simon from 1855, Abraham from 1858 and Betje from 1861, who however died 6 months later in 1862.
Meijer was a diamond cutter by profession and also traded in diamonds. At the age of 21, he married the 19-year-old Bloeme de Paauw in Amsterdam on 25 November 1885, who was born there on 19 August 1866 as a daughter of Philip Samuel de Paauw and Sarline Bouteljé.
The couple had thirteen children; the six youngest, namely Frederica, Louis, Alex, Helena, Henriette and Caroling were born in Hilversum. The seven eldest children, namely Machiel, Serlina, Philip, Simon, Samuel, Esther and Abraham, were born in Amsterdam.
After the marriage took place in 1885, they lived in the Swammerdamstraat but moved to Hilversum in 1897, where they lived at Langestraat 35 until 1909. After returning to Amsterdam in 1909, they ended up at Overtoom 447 and from July 1928 the family moved into a house at Ruyschstraat 13. Then, from 16 April 1931, at Hunzestraat 11, 1st floor in Amsterdam's “Rivierenbuurt” (River District).
During the war, the Germans designated four areas in Amsterdam to function as “Judenviertel”, the Transvaalbuurt (Transvaal District), the Rivierenbuurt (River District), Asterdorp and the old Jewish neighborhood in the City-center. Jews had to move to one of those neighborhoods and from 20 November 1942, Meijer and his wife Bloeme and their youngest daughters Henriette and Carolina had to move to Afrikanerplein 27, 1st floor in the Transvaal District of Amsterdam-East.
In 1941, after being compulsorily registered like all Jews in the Netherlands, Meijer Salomons was appointed by the Jewish Council as a pastoral employee at the General Service Department. As a result, he, his wife and the children Henriette and Carolina who still lived at home, were provisionally exempt from deportation (“gesperrt bis auf weiteres”).
Of their children, only the eldest, Machiel (1 December 1887) and the youngest, Carolina (26 April 1907) survived the Holocaust. All other eleven children of Meijer and Bloeme - almost all with their families - were murdered during the Shoah in 1943 and 1944, but some have died in early 1945.
Unlike Meijer himself, who died in Amsterdam on 13 October 1943, his wife Bloeme survived the Holocaust and eventually lived to be 100 years old. She died the day after her birthday, on 20 August 1966 in Amsterdam. It is not known where Bloeme de Paauw was buried. Meijer Salomons was interred on 17 October 1943 in the Jewish Cemetery of Muiderberg.
Sources included the City Archive of Amsterdafm, family registration cards of Meijer Salomons, archive cards of Meijer Salomons and Bloeme de Paauw; the Peoples Registry of Amsterdam/Meijer Salomons/ Peoples Registry of annexed municipalities; residence cards of Amsterdam/Overtoom 447 and Hunzestraat 11’the file cabinet of the Jewish Coundil, registration cards of Meijer Salomons and Bloeme Salomons-de Paauw; website Joods Amsterdam/Judenviertel and Transvaalbuurt and the website www.stenenarchief.nl/record 35735/grave Meijer Salomons.