About Philip de Leeuw

Philip de Leeuw was an economist. He was married. The marriage took place during the mobilisation, shortly before the German invasion, in the Neie Shul in Amsterdam. The marriage was consecrated by Philip Coppenhagen. Philip de Leeuw and his wife were both members of the Zionist Jewish Youth federation. They wanted to move to Palestine as soon as the war was over. The couple lived in the Apeldoornse Bos, where Philip de Leeuw worked as a garden hand. His wife worked as a nurse.

During the mobilisation and in May 1940, Philip de Leeuw was an officer with the border contingent in Dinxperlo. In Januari 1943, he went into hiding. An attempt to cross over to England illegally failed. Philip de Leeuw came in contact with an illegal group in Bilthoven, where he became commander of a sabotage group. He gave the group instructions. Later he became platoon commander of the Interior Forces. He was in charge of the attack on the railway line by Groenekan on 7 November 1944. Through betrayal, the Nazis found out where the resistance fighters could be found. On the evening of the attack, the house they were based in was surrounded and he was arrested.

Philip de Leeuw landed in the penal prison in Utrecht. In retaliation for an attack on a German soldier, six people were rounded up from various prisons and executed on 20 November 1944 at the Prattenberg in Rhenen. Philip de Leeuw was one of them. He was reburied in Veenendaal and later reburied at the military cemetery Loenen (section E, grave 1284).
NIOD, Erelijst Verzet en Koopvaardij, database made by J.W. de Leeuw
M. Brink and D. van Kreveld, Geschiedenis van de Joodse gemeenschap in Stichts en Gelders Veenendaal (Veenendaal 2001) 257-258;
M.H. Gans, Memorboek. Platenatlas van het leven der joden in Nederland van de middeleeuwen tot 1940 (6e bijgewerkte druk; Baarn 1988) 796