An extensive story about the Van Louis Gersons family and the rest of the family can also be found on "Het geheugen van Tilburg". (The Memory of Tilburg) – Dutch language only.
Louis Gersons, son of Hartog Gersons and Catharina Jacoba Salomon, was born in Tilburg on 6 August 1893. Unlike his father Hartog Gersons and brother David, Louis did not become a butcher, but went into piece and/or dry goods. In the Tilburg address book of 1928 it is listed as L. Gersons, merchant in piece goods, Heuvel 69 and in the 1931 edition as L. Gersons, in dry goods, St. Josephstraat 112, Tel. 2062.
Louis married Martina van Gelder, a daughter of the merchant Magnus van Gelder and Grietje Cohen, on 24 June 1930. Martina, usually called Tine, was born in Amsterdam on 9 December 1906. After the marriage was concluded, Martina moved to Tilburg and the young couple lived at Sint Josephstraat 112. Louis and Martina had two children: on 10 May 1931, Hans was born and on 15 January 1934, Magnus Frits followed, who was usually called Frits.
After the mandatory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands, Louis and his wife Martina were given functions by the Jewish Council, which meant that they and their children were provisionally exempted from deportation. For example, Martina was “exempted because of function”: Since 1 February 1935, she was the “gabbete” (female of “gabbe” = board member) at the Dutch Israëlitic Congregation of Tilburg: she raised money for charitable causes.
Louis, who was “gesperrt/exempted because of spouse”, was co-founder and initiator of the Poor Board, which supported needy Jewish members in Tilburg, and was himself appointed as materials supply inspector at the Jewish Council on 15 June 1942, for which he obtained an I.D. number A-1064. Both Louis and Martine had high “Sperre numbers/stamps: Louis 86639 and Martina 86640, which belonged to the number series 80000 to 10000, the actual Jewish Council stamps.
In the context of the mandatory concentration of Jews from the province in Amsterdam, Louis Gersons, his wife Martina van Gelder and their sons Hans and Magnus Frits also had to move to Amsterdam, where on 5 June 1943 they took up residence with Anton and Anna Robbers on the Zuider Amstellaan 199 house (nowadays Rooseveltlaan). Two months later, on 5 August 1943, they moved into living space at Merwedeplein 24, 2nd floor, which would turn out to be their last known address in the Netherlands.
On 14 May 1943, Rauter issued a decree in which Jews were prohibited from staying in Amsterdam as of 21 May 1943. Excluded from this were those who possessed a so-called “Sperrestamp” and have been granted a deferment for the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz”. Jews whose stay is prohibited must report to the Polderweg on 20 May 1943. (source: De Telegraaf newspaper of 17 May 1943).
The turnout on 20 May was too poor in the opinion of the Germans, with the result that they organized large roundups in Amsterdam East and South: on 25 May 7000 Jews had to report, but only 500 responded to the call. The next day, 26 May 1943, the Germans arrested about 3000 Jews (source: website Oorlogsbronnen) and in June the Germans rounded up another 5500 Jews during the large and secretly prepared roundup of 20 June 1943.
Amsterdam was on its way to becoming “Judenrein” (Free of Jews). Although Louis Gersons and his wife and children had been able to avoid arrest and deportation until then. Another small raid followed in September, but the last major roundup took place on 29 September 1943, during which another 10000 Jews were raided, including the members of the Jewish Council, which then effectively ceased to exist. Louis Gersons, Martina van Gelder and their children Hans and Frits were among the last who were deported to Westerbork. They ended up there in barrack 66, awaiting deportation.
Only on 15 February 1944, the four Gersons family members were deported with 769 other deportees to Bergen Belsen, where ultimately only the youngest son Magnus Frits Gersons survived the horrors of that place. He was able to return to the Netherlands on 19 September 1945 and spent the first time in the Joodsche Invalide on Weesperplein in Amsterdam. He passed away on 6 December 2019 in Bussum.
Louis Gersons did not survive those horrors: he succumbed in Bergen Belsen on 22 December 1944 and his wife Martina Gersons-van Gelder also lost her life there on 10 January 1945.
When the English troops approached Bergen Belsen, approximately 6800 prisoners were taken from the camp in three freight trains at the beginning of April 1945, with their ultimate intended destination Theresienstadt. (also known as The lost Train). However, the last of those trains stranded at Tröbitz and on 23 April 1945, the Red Army liberated the surviving prisoners from that train. Hans Gersons and 199 others did not survive that journey and after the war, Hans Gersons' death was determined to be 23 April 1945 by order of the Amsterdam District Court of 26 July 1948.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Louis Gersons, Martina van Gelder and Hans and Magnus Frits Gersons, the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Louis Gersons, Martina Gersons-van Gelder and Hans and Magnus Frits Gersons; wedding certificate 376 from Amserdam/Gersons x van Gelder; Amsterdam residence cards/Zuider Amstellaan 199 house and Merwedeplein 24 2nd floor; website wiki Midden Brabant –(Dutch language only); Wikipedia website The Lost Train; Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/transport 15 Feb.1944 and the death certificate 72 of 13 March 1950 from Amsterdam for Hans Gersons.