Louis, (mostly named Loetje) and Hans Cohen were children of Mozes Cohen and Betje van Gelder. Their parents married in 1930 and lived at that time in Rotterdam, where they both were born. In 1936 the Cohen family moved to Den Haag, were father and mother went to live at separate addresses.
When Louis was born, his father was 58 and his mother 25 years old. Presumably due to the huge difference of age of 33 years between father and mother, the marriage of their parents lasted only for about 6 ½ years and 22 April 1937, their parents divorced. (verdict by the District Court of Den Haag).
In 1934 a third son was born, named Maurits. After the divorce of their parents, the three children were placed at the Berg Stichting in Laren in 1939, a Jewish home for children of poor families whose parents were deprived of parental power or were divorced. By order of the Germans the Berg Stichting in Laren was conficated in 1942 and by the engagement and efforts of the former director Jan Reitsema, all the children and staff were accomodated on Rapenburg 92-96 in Amsterdam, where the Salvation Army those buildings has made available. Reitsema arranged non-Jew statements; on paper his children became “Mischlinge”(half-Jewish) and he organized hiding places at Haarlemmermeer.
Louis arrived in Nieuw Vennep. One day, he was biking with a grandson of farmer Boogaard, as they were stopped on the go and arrested. On 7 January 1944 he was registered in Camp Westerbork, stayed at barack 35 untill he was deported to Auschwitz on 25 January where he was killed immediately upon arrival there on 28 January 1944.
Hans arrived in Rijssenhout. He was at school, when NSB-people came to the school, asking who came from Rotterdam. Hans, about 11 years old, put his finger up. Him was told then that “they would come back in the evening for more information”. His “hiding mother” protested loudly and cried that Hans was not a Jewish boy. Then Hans was taken to the shed where they took of his trousers and then it was seen that he was circumcised. He had to come with them immediately. In Camp Westerbork he was registered on 28 October 193, stayed at barack 67 untill he was deported to Auschwitz on 16 November, where he was killed immediately upon arrival there on 29 November 1943.
Maurits, who survived the Shoah by hiding tells from own memory, how he and his brothers were saved by the resistance. They lived already at Rapenburg 92-96 in Amsterdam, where the Berg Stichting was situated since 1942. When they were walking in the street with other children some day, they were picked up from the row by a lady named Lies de Jong and she took them into a street urinal where she removed as quickly as possible the mandatory “Jewish star” from their clothes. Then they were brought to Mrs. Truus de Swaan, who brought Maurits to his hidingplace at the farm of Johannes Boogaard in the Haarlemmermeer. His brother Hans came in Rijssenhout and Louis in Nieuw Vennep.
After the divorce of their parents, their father Mozes Cohen lived at Obrechtstraat 556 and their mother Betje van Gelder at Fahrenheitstraat 753, both in Den Haag. From their latest addresses they have been sent to Camp Westerbork and put on transport to “the East”, where Mozes Cohen was killed in Auschwitz and Betje van Gelder in Sobibor.
City archive of Rotterdam - family registration card of Mozes Cohen; Municpal Archive of Den Haag – family registration card of Mozes Cohen; file cabinet of the Jewisch Council, registration cards of Mozes Cohen, Betje van Geder, Louis and Hans Cohen, an addition of a visitor of the website and the website http://www.joodsamsterdam.nl/rapenburg-92-96-bergstichting/.