Lion van Stratum, the son of Adries van Stratum and Marianne Vos, who was born in Amsterdam on 23 September 1912, was a sales represtative and also a diamond worker. He lived with his parents in Antwerp and Amsterdam, but up from 1930 on his own at Pieter Pauwstraat 10 in Amsterdam. In 1936 he stayed shortly in Antwerp but from 26 January 1937 his domicile was Amsterdam again.
Lion lived at various addresses in town, such as Govert Flinckstraat 317 with the Van der Meulen-Hausfelder family. And when this family moved in June 1936 to Derde Oosterparkstraat 73 3rd floor, Lion van Stratum moved along. Thereafter more changes of addresses followed till 24 June 1943, when Lion married Eva Cohen in Amsterdam, born on 11 March 1919 in Markelo, but who lived at Weesperstraat in Amsterdam since 1942 with her parents Levy Anthonie Cohen and Flora Cohen-Denneboom.
At the outbroke of the Second Worl War in May 1940, Lion van Stratum lived still at Derde Oosterparkstraat 73 3rd floor in Amsterdam-East. Since Lion too was obliged to registrate himself at the Jewish Council in 1941, he got this job at the administration of the distribution of vegetables of the Council with the Lever Brothers in the Valkenburgerstraat with an I.D. C-1742, issued by the Council and was therefore exempted from deportation for the time being. He also possessed his diploma First Aid (EHBO) and he functioned also as a nurse.
In April 1943, Lion even moved to Noorder Amstellaan 4 and after his marriage to Eva Cohen, he presumably moved mandatory to Reitzstraat 43 3rd floor in the Transvaal district of Amsterdam-East. As far as could be deducted from the documentry, the married couple Van Stratum and Cohen did not live together but at separate addresses. Eva Cohen lived at Weesperstraat 17 2nd floor in February 1942 and per October 1942 at Weesperplein 1, where she was employed as cleaning girl at the Joodsche Invalide.
Eva, who formerly was a seamstress, was “gesperrt” – exempted from deportation for the time being, because of function. She had an I.D. Z-1096 issued by the Council as cleaning girl at the JVvVV, the Council’s Jewish Society for Nursing and Care. In March 1943 she moved to Nieuwe Keizersgracht 110, in July 1943 to Kromme Mijdrechtstraat 82 2nd floor and in August 1943 to Tugelaweg 120 ground floor.
Lion, as well his spouse Eva were even in possession of a so-called “Ausnahme Bescheinigung van der Laan”, an ultimate postponement of deportation but Eva still had been carried off to Westerbork on 29 September 1943, at the same time, the complete Jewish Council was liquidated by the Germans. In Westerbork she ended up in barrack 70 and was put on transport to Auschwitz on 19 October 1943. On arrival there on 22 October 1943, she was immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
At the other hand, Lion van Stratum might have made attempts to go into hiding. As a penal case he was arrested and carried off to Westerbork on 17 May 1944 and had to wait for deportation in barrack 65, which followed on 19 May 1944. That date, two transports left Westerbork, for Auschwitz and for Bergen Belsen. Most likely, Lion ended up on 22 May 1944 in Auschwitz but it is unknown where he lost his life eventually.
Between his date of arrival of 22 May 1944 in Auschwitz, and Lion’s later established date of death of 30 September 1944, many prisoners were transferred from the Auschwitz complex to other destinations for the purpose of the German war industry. They were i.e. transferred to the labor command Schwarzheide (Sachsenhausen), Buchenwald, Gross Rosen or Flossenburg. Whether Lion van Stratum was part of one of these so-called “Normal Transporte” is unknown. However it is certain that Lion did not die in Auschwitz.
Therefore, the Dutch Ministry of Justice after the war ordered the Municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a certificate of death for Lion van Stratum, in which has been established that he has died on 30 September 1944 in Mid Europe.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Andries van Stratum and Lion van Stratum, archive cards of Lion van Stratum and Eva Cohen; residence card Amsterdam of Govert Flinckstraat 317 1st and 3rd Oosterparkstrat 73 3rd ; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Lion van Stratum and Eva van Stratum-Cohen; the Wikipedia listing of jodentransporten vanuit Nedeland.nl; the publication of the Dutch Red Cross “Auschwitz part VI” transfers from Auschwitz and surroundings edited March 1953 and the certificate of death for Lion van Stratum, made out on 3 April 1952 in Amsterdam, no. 494 from the A-register 95, folio 84