Simson Cohen Rodrigues, a son of Josua Cohen Rodrigues and Rachel Messias, was born on 3 May 1896 in Amsterdam. He was a presser and tailor by trade. On 24 August 1921, he married Mietje Berlijn, a daughter of Levie Jacob Berlijn and Aaltje Berlijn, in Amsterdam. The couple had three children, viz. Rachel, who was born in September 1922, Alida followed in May 1930 and Josua in May 1932.
Before the marriage was concluded in 1921, Simson lived in places such as Nieuwe Kerkstraat, Foeliestraat and from the end of February 1919 in Weesperstraat 171. After the marriage was concluded, Mietje Berlijn moved in with him there, but they moved together on 15 December 1921 to the Nieuwe Achtergracht 107.
Several moves followed, until on 13 June 1925 Simson left alone for Antwerp and his wife Mietje and her then three-year-old daughter Rachel moved in with her father at 2e Oosterparkstraat 173. After a month, on 15 July 1925, Simson returned from Deurne (Antwerp) and then lived with the widow of Aaron Nikkelsberg at Vrolikstraat 90, after which Mietje and Rachel also moved in there shortly afterwards.
Again numerous relocations followed; their daughter Alida and son Josua were born when they lived at Sumatrastraat 212. The marriage of Simson and Mietje was difficult and a year later, on 14 August 1933, Mietje Berlijn and her then three children were deregistered from the address Tidorestraat 13 and independently occupied the 1st floor of the address Tidorestraat 24. Shortly afterwards they moved to Batavierstraat 17 I in the old city center of Amsterdam. Finally, the formal divorce followed on 30 June 1938.
After Mietje and the children moved into the address Tidorestraat 24 in 1933, Simson continued to live at house number 13, then moved at least 9 to 10 times and in June 1938 he moved in with Lena van Kreeveld at Retiefstraat 71 3rd floor, whom he remarried on 3 July 1940. Together they had a son on 10 January 1943, named Simon Monny Cohen Rodrigues. Lena van Kreeveld, who was previously married to Simon Frankfort and with whom she had three children, viz. Rebecca, Hendrik and Richard, divorced him in June 1937. The children then continued to live with their mother.
Mietje Berlijn also met another man in her life, the non-Jewish Johannes Cornelis Craemers, with whom she had a daughter Jennie in 1939. On 3 April 1940 they married in Amsterdam and possibly because of her mixed marriage she survived the war; her daughter Alida and son Josua from her previous marriage to Simson Cohen Rodrigues also survived the Holocaust.
After the marriage of Simson Cohen Rodrigues and Lena van Kreeveld was concluded in 1940, the family then consisted of Simson Cohen Rodrigues himself, his second wife Lena van Kreeveld and his stepchildren Rebecca, Hendriken Richard Frankfort and Simon Monny Cohen Rodrigues, born on 10 January 1943. His stepson Hendrik Frankfort was admitted to Apeldoornsche Bosch on 8 October 1941. That institution was emptied by the Germans in the night of 21 to 22 January 1943 and the staff and patients still present were deported to Auschwitz. On 25 January 1943, after arriving in Auschwitz, all, including Hendrik Frankfort, were immediately murdered in the gas chambers.
Simson's daughter Rachel Cohen Rodrigues no longer lived "at home" but since July 1938 she lived with her mother Mietje Berlijn at Batavierstraat 17 I, where her sister Alida and brother Josua also lived, as well as Jennie Craemers from Mietje Berlijn's 2nd marriage, who was born in 1939. Rachel finally got killed in Auschwitz in January 1944, but Alida and Josua survived the Shoah, as did their mother Mietje Berlijn and her daughter Jennie.
Simson Cohen Rodrigues, Lena van Kreeveld, and Lena's children from her first marriage, Alida and Josua Frankfort, moved on 24 August 1942 to Rapenburg 64 II, from where they left already after a few weeks to Nieuwe Achtergracht 75 3rd floor, where January 1943 still Simon Monny Cohen Rodrigues was born. They were all taken from there on 25 May 1943 to Westerbork where they awaited their deportation in barrack 65. That followed on 29 June to Sobibor, where they were immediately murdered in the gas chambers on arrival on 2 July 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Simson Cohen Rodrigues, archive cards of Simson Cohen Rodrigues, Mietje Berlijn, Lena van Kreeveld, Alida Cohen Rodrigues, Josua Cohen Rodrigues (still not public); residence card Vrolikstraat 90 Amsterdam with Simson Cohen Rodrigues; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of among others Simson Cohen Rodrigues, Lena Cohen Rodrigues - van Kreeveld and children; website ITS Arolson/victim listing with Cohen Rodrigues and the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.