Leon Salomon Kannewasser, born 21 November 1879 in Den Helder as son of Salomon Aron Kannewasser and Jansje (Gittel) Leon Beek, married 24 October 1897 in Den Helder Esther Philip Vrieslander, born 21 November 1881 in Den Helder as daughter of Philip Lazarus Vrieslander (shopkeeper of fancy goods) and Retje (Betje) Leon Beek. However already on 5 February 1924 Esther Vrieslander passed away and she was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Den Helder.
On 20 September 1907 their son Salomon Leon Kannewasser was born in Den Helder. He became a textile wholesaler and married 8 June 1937 in Amsterdam Cato Vaz-Dias, who was born 5 may 1906 in Amsterdam as daughter of Mozes Vaz-Dias and Esther Wijnschenk. They lived in Den Helder but since 23 December 1942 they were registered in the Peoples Registry as V.O.W. (Departed- Unkown Where too). This usually meant: went into hiding. Salomon Leon and his wife Cato have survived the Holocaust.
Since Leon Kannewasser had become a widower, after some time his unmarried sister Maartje Salomon Kannewasser, who worked as housekeeper, lived in with him at Zuidstraat 88 in Den Helder, where he runned a shop in haberdasheries, however, in 1942 Leon and Maartje had to move to McLaine Pontstraat 9 in Alkmaar. On 25 June 1942 they were forced to move to Amsterdam, where they ended up in the Lekstraat 130 2nd floor. On 22 February 1943 they had to move again and arrived then at Reitzstraat 8 1st floor in Amsterdam-East.
Leon had this job at the Jewish Council and was exempted from deportation until further notice. Since 11 September 1942 he was “employee evacuation” at Nieuwe Keizersgracht, that is, he was a help to those who were forced by the Germans to move to districts in Amsterdam, where, as Jews, they could later more easily arrested and fetched for deportation.
At the time of the big round-ups in Amsteram in the end of May 1943, when all exemptions from deportation were cancelled, Leon Kannewasser self and his sister Maartje eventually were arrested and taken to Westerbork, where they arrived 26 May 1943 in barrack 62. On 1 June they were put on transport to Sobibor, where on arrival on 4 June 1943, Leon Kannewasser, his sister Maartje Salomon Kannewasser and all other deportees immediately were killed.
Sources among others City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Leon Salomon Kannewasser, Esther Philip Vrieslander, Maartje Salomon Kannewasser, Salomon Leon Kannewasser and Cato Vaz-Dias; website hetstenenarchief.nl/grave Esther Vrieslander; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Leon Salomon Kannewasser, Maartje Salomon Kannewasser and genealogical information of a visitor of the website.