The Kon family, consisting of Mosiek Markus Kon, born in Plock, Poland in 1878, his wife Chana Dydakov, born in Biezun, Poland in 1882, and their children Hersz, Icek, Estera Brana, Cyon and Szymon, all born in Plock in Poland, arrived from Plock in Amsterdam in July 1931. After their settling in Amsterdam, where they for a start have lived at different addresses, their children got married and left their parental home to build a family in their own home. On 28 August 1935, Mosiek Markus and Chana Kon moved to Blasiusstraat 46 parterre, where they continued to live until their arrest and deportation to the death camps.
The eldest son Hersz left after his marriage on 31 March 1932 with the Polish Gela Silberberg in Amsterdam, to their own address in Bosboom Toussaintstraat 9 hs, where on August 6, 1933 their son Israel Kon was born. Gela was born in Zakroczym on July 14, 1907 to Bencion Silberberg and Chaja Malka Lejbeszic.
Hersz Kon was a tailor by profession. His wife Gela was a seamstress and they had their shop and business at Bosboom Toussaintstraat. At the time of the war, on 30 July 1942, Hersz reported to the police a burglary the night of July 29 to 30, 1942. The perpetrators had torn off a plywood barrier for the shop window, pressed it in and then stole two pieces of cloth. The total value of the stolen material was Fl. 50, - purchasing value. “The report is processed. Atelier warned. The declarant is Jew”, according to the Official Report of the Amsterdam Police.
On the night of 8-9 April 1943, Hersz and Gela were arrested and taken to the Vught concentration camp. Their son Israel was probably already housed elsewhere in hiding and survived the Shoah. Hersz and Gela were transferred on 16 September 1943 from Vught to Westerbork, where they had to stay in barrack 69. A note on Gela’s registration card of the Jewish Council read: “as of 23 March 1943 employed as employee of the Jewish Council ”. It is not known whether this had consequences in respect to exemption from deportation. But only on 16 November, 2 months after their arrival from Vught in Westerbork, they were deported to Auschwitz.
On arrival of that transport on 19 November, Gela Kon-Silberberg was immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her husband, on the other hand, was selected as a forced laborer and from there ended up in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. In the end, Hersz managed to survive the Holocaust; in July 1945 the Royal Dutch Legation from Sweden announced that Hersz Kon was staying there and on September 18, 1945 he returned to Amsterdam.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, archive cards of Mosiek Markus Kon, Hersz Kon and Gela Silberberg; Official Report for burglary on July 30, 1942 at Hersz Kon by the Amsterdam Police; the archive of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Hersz Kon, Gela Kon-Silberberg and Israel Kon; website ITS Arolson, registrations KL Vught of Hersz Kon and Gela Silberberg and KL Mittelbau of Hersz Kon and the death certificate from Amsterdam no. 498 from A-reg. 87-fol.84-v dated 5 October 1951 of Gela Kon-Siberberg.