Bertha Kattenburg-Rueff

Berthe (or Bertha) Rueff was a daughter of Leopold Rueff and Julie Levy from Basel, Switzerland. She had three brothers: Marcel, Paul and Louis and three sisters: Mathilde, Lucie and Celine.

Berthe Rueff married Jonas Kattenburg in Amsterdam on 15 December 1920, a wholesaler and retailer in shoes and a son of Samuel Kattenburg en Schoontje Ossendrijver and  lived at Nieuwe Hoogstraat 29 in Amsterd…

Jonas Kattenburg was a shoe wholesaler. He got his shoes from the 'Langstraat' (North-Brabamt) and sold them in Amsterdam to traders.
German business relations warned him for the threat of nazi Germany and advised him to flee to England. However, because of the strong family ties in Amsterdam this was not an option. When the Germans invaded the family tried to flee through the harbour in the Hoek …

Bertha Rueff-Kattenburg wrote a letter from Westerbork. This letter remains.
Jewish Historical Museum, Documents collection, inv.nr 6718


Bertha Rueff was the sister of Lucie Barmes-Rueff and Celine Dekker-Rueff. The three sisters came from Saint Louis in (Alsace) and had the Swiss nationality. All three sisters got married to Dutch men.
Addition of a visitor of the website

The Rueff family came from St. Louis, which was located in the southern part of the Alsace and boarded almost the city of Basel. Saint Louis or Sankt Ludwig: the region was annexed in 1871 by Germany but after WWI and the Versailles Peace treaty, it became French again. Later the family moved to Basel and became Swiss citizens in 1916.

The Rueffs were a family of nine persons: the parents Leopold …