Lena Reiwit was born on 25 February 1862 in Kofnow in Russia. She was married to Friedrich Michel, who was born on 1 August 1860 in Koben, Russia. The then 24-year-old Friedrich and the 22-year-old Lena came to Amsterdam in the summer of 1884 and found accommodation at Zandstraat 21. Their first child, Marcus, was born there on 19 September of that year. Friedrich Michel was a shoemaker by trade and the Amsterdam Register of Foreigners shows that he came to Amsterdam with his wife “to work here”.
Between 1884 and 1905, Friedrich and Lena had 10 other children, viz. Heintje (1886), Herman (1887), Jeannette (1889), Abraham Bernard (1890), Isaac (1892), Jacob (1894), Esther (1896), Rebecca (1898), Rosa (1901) and Elizabeth 1904. In during that period they also lived in the St. Antonie Breestraat, Valkenburgerstraat and Joden Houttuinen. At the time of Rosa's birth in September 1901, the family lived at Batavierstraat 2, but then moved about four more times.
In 1927 the family lived at Lange Houtstraat 26; there on 23 March 1931 Lena's husband Friedrich Michel died at the age of 70. He was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen on field B, row 22-no.45. After the death of her husband, Lena Reiwit moved on 27 October 1936 to Tugelaweg 91 in East Amsterdam, which also turned out to be her last known address in Amsterdam.
Her unmarried son Marcus Michel moved in with his mother on the Tugelaweg on 27 October 1936. Marcus used to live at home in the Lange Houtstraat, but to live on his own, he moved to 2e Jan Steenstraat at the beginning of May 1930. Marcus returned to Tugelaweg after the death of his father, but in May 1936 he found accommodation on Plantage Parklaan, to move back to his mother in October of that year.
In the night of 9 to 10 April 1943, Lena Reiwit was brought in Westerbork where she was admitted to hospital barrack 84. Not long after, however, on 13 April, she was deported to Sobibor. The deportation train contained 1205 victims, all of whom were murdered in the gas chambers of Sobibor immediately upon arrival there on 16 April 1943, including the 81-year-old Lena Michel-Reiwit.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family registration cards Friedrich Michel, archive card Lena Reiwit; website Akevoth/additional databases/M/Burial Permits/grave Friedrich Michel; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Lena Michel-Reiwit, the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten uit Nederland.nl; the death certificate of Lena Reiwit no. 127 from the A-register 10-folio 23 dated 27 January 1950 and family history informed by a surviving family member.
(after opening the link, enter the family name Michel and then look it up.)