Of the four children of the unmarried Hendrica van Kreeveld, Lena was the only one who was murdered in Auschwitz during the Shoah. Lena van Kreeveld was born in Amsterdam on 12 March 1913. Her eldest brother Joseph died in 1936, aged 25; his wife Celina Sturkop was murdered in Auschwitz, but their 1930 daughter Hendrica van Kreeveld survived the Holocaust.
Lena also had a little brother Juda, who was born in January 1912 but died the next month in February 1912. Lena's youngest brother Salomon, who was born in 1915, most likely survived the war.
Three months after Lena's birth, on 26 June 1913, mother Hendrica van Kreeveld left Amsterdam for Antwerp. Her son Joseph and newborn daughter Lena went along. They came to live at Plantijnlei-Oost no. 96 in Antwerp. She supported herself as a housekeeper and maid.
As far as could be ascertained, Lena returned to Amsterdam from Antwerp at the age of 17, where she was registered on 25 September 1930 at Manegestraat 4, where she lived in with Chajem Leib from Poland. After two years, in August 1932, she moved in with the family of Joseph Boas and Roosje Haamerslag at Nieuwe Heerengracht 151 3rd floor. Roosje was the daughter of Lena's grandmother Leentje Nikkelsberg, who was married in 3rd wedlock to Juda Haamerslag.
In August 1932 Lena moved with the family of Joseph Boas to Nieuwe Keizersgracht 71, but in July 1933 she moved from there to Cilliersstraat 8 3rd floor with the family of Simon de Zwarte, who had lived there since May 1931. In February 1934 she returned from there to Nieuwe Keizersgracht 71 with the Boas family and on 3 July 1935 she married David de Zwarte, a son of Simon de Zwarte and Mietje Polak. David was born in Amsterdam on 1 July 1907.
However, Lena and David's marriage ended already after only a few months; on 7 November 1935, the marriage was dissolved by a verdict of the Amsterdam District Court and registered on 14 February 1936 in the registers of the Civil Registry of Amsterdam.
After the divorce in April 1936, David de Zwarte and Lena left still together for Den Haag and stayed for a short time with Lena's mother Hendrica van Kreeveld at Fluwelen Burgwal 17. After a few months Lena returned to Amsterdam from Amsterdam to her mother, where she was registered in November 1936 at Leidschegracht 98, moved to Marnixstraat 394a and returned to her mother in The Hague on 10 December.
At the end of February 1938, Lena and her mother Hendrica moved into another house at Schenkweg 52 in Den Haag, but Lena returned to Amsterdam in July 1938, address Prinsengracht 642. In July 1939, the house number became 828 and in December 1940 Lena moved again to Den Haag, J.C. Camphuysstraat 221, but on February 12, 1941 she lived again with her mother at 876 Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, who, after the period that she stayed in Den Haag, had already lived in Amsterdam since the end of November 1938.
On 12 September 1942, Lena van Kreeveld remarried in Amsterdam to the 10-year younger Leon Bakker, a son of Izak Bakker and Mietje Markus. Leon was born on 23 June 1923 in Amsterdam and had worked as a picolo at the Amsterdam Carlton Hotel and lived with his parents, brothers and sisters from 1937 on Plantage Muidergracht 31 2nd floor.
On 30 October 1942 Lena and Leon were taken to Westerbork, where they ended up in barrack 63 and later in barrack 65. But on 12 December deportation to Auschwitz followed with the last transport of the year 1942 and Lena Bakker-van Kreeveld and her husband Leon Bakker were immediately murdered on arrival on 15 December 1942 in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the Felix Archive/Antwerp Dossier of Foreigners no.150493; the Amsterdam City Archives, Archive cards of Lena van Kreeveld, David de Zwarte, Simon de Zwarte, Leon Bakker and Izak Bakker; Family registration cards from Amsterdam of Lena van Kreeveld, David de Zwarte and Izak de Zwarte; Amsterdam marriage certificate 41 from 1935 and divorce certificate 89 from 1936 of David de Zwarte x Lena van Kreeveld; Municipal Archives of Den Haag, family registration card David de Zwarte and Lena van Kreeveld; Residence cards Amsterdam/Nieuwe Heerengracht 151 and Nieuwe Keizersgracht 71; the archive of the Red Cross/transport list Amsterdam-Westerbork dated 30 October 1942; the archives of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Lena Bakker-van Kreeveld and Leon Bakker and the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl