Sophia Cohen was one of the twin daughters of Samuel Cohen and Sientje Jacobij, who were married in Breda on 5 December 1918. Her father served in the army and was a sergeant in the infantry. At the time of his marriage he lived in Den Bosch, were also Sophia and her sister Esther were born.
Because of the profession of her father they had to move several times. After Den Bosh they lived in Venlo; in April 1930 the family was registered in Nijmegen but in 1931 the Cohen family came to Amsterdam where they lived until 1934 in the Tooropstraat. From there they moved to the Gelderschekade and on 18 April 1940 their address became Amstel 45 1st floor in Amsterdam.
Sophia’s twin sister Esther, a seamstress by profession, was registered together with her parents in Westerbork on 3 October 1942. Her parents were already deported to Auschwitz on 5 October and on arrival there on 8 October 1942 immediately killed. On the other hand, Esther remained in Westerbork and in the end she was liberated there on 12 April 1945. Her registration card of the Jewish Council shows that she was “exempted from deportation until further notice” (“gesperrt”), but the reason of her exemption was not stated. Esther survived the war and passed away in 2002.
Sophia was unmarried, worked as a servant maid and left her parental home on January 18, 1941, to Apeldoorn, where she worked for several months as a housekeeper in the Jewish psychiatric institution "Het Apeldoornse Bos". On 18 April 1941 she returned to Amsterdam where she ended up at the Sarphatikade 6 ground floor, where a rest home was located. Hereafter, on 21 June 1941 a move to the Weesperzijde 108 ground floor followed and her last known address became per 2 July 1942 Stadhouderskade 152 ground floor.
Sophia Cohen arrived in Camp Westerbork on 15 July 1942. It is not known whether she had received an appeal for the so-called "work expansion in Germany" or whether there was another reason for her arrival in Westerbork. After a stay of one week however, Sophia was deported to Auschwitz on 21 July with 930 other deportees.
Dr. L. de Jong describes in section 8 - second volume - of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in World War II on page 57 the following about the transport of 21 July 1942:
"The train journey", according to the description of the third transport to Auschwitz, with many young people, was, according one of the deportees, "cozy; we almost all sang and we were optimistic. There were some children in this transport but what they should do in the labor camp, we did not understand that very much. We traveled in cattle wagons, the doors of which were open so that we could sit outside with our legs, and at every station where the train stopped, we were allowed to drink water. In every wagon were forty men, so that was not too bad".
On arrival of the transport there on ± 24 July 1942, Sophia was undoubtedly employed in the camp, where she eventually lost her life. It is not known on what date she exactly died, but after the war, on orders from the Ministry of Justice, a death certificate was drawn up for Sophia Cohen in the City of Amsterdam on 20 July 1950 in which her place and date of death was established as in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942
Sources among others: City archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Sophia Cohen and Samuel Cohen; websites wiewaswie.nl and openarchieven.nl; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Sophia Cohen and the death certificate made out in Amsterdam, A43-folio 54, no. 312 dated 20 July 1950.