Bernard Luza was the son of Salomon Luza and Eva Berkhof. He married 2 June 1926 in Amsterdam to Clara van Os, a daughter of Juda van Os and Jette Juchenheim. In 1928 they had a daughter Eva.
Bernard was born in a family with ten children, of whom two children have died before the war and three sisters have survived the war. The other siblings were Betje, Anna, David and Mietje; they have been killed during the Holocaust.
Amsterdam Municipal Archives; record card of Bernard Luza and website www.wiewaswie.nl.
After he completed primary school, he worked in the cigar industry and joined the Hollandia garment factory in Amsterdam at age 14. Six years later he left for another firm but returned to Hollandia in 1939. He worked for the department that made raincoats waterproof.
B. Braber, Zelfs als wij zullen verliezen. Joden in verzet en illegaliteit in Nederland 1940-1945 (Amsterdam, 1990) 114
Bernard Luza was initially a member of the SDAP. In 1935 he joined the Dutch Communist Party (CPN). He served for a while as treasurer for the CPN group in the Amsterdam garment industry.
Luza was arrested and tried with four other Hollandia employees in Utrecht in January 1943. They were accused of distributing the underground newspaper De Waarheid on the Hollandia company premises and inciting sabotage of raincoat production for the Nazi forces by slowing the work process or tampering with the conveyor belt. Bernard Luza was regarded as the leader of the group. The prosecution demanded the death penalty for all members of the group. Luza and Mijer Konijn were sentenced to death, the three others to terms at the house of correction. Bernard Luza was executed in Scheveningen on 15 February 1943.
NIOD, Erelijst Verzet en Koopvaardij, database made by J.W. de Leeuw;
Bernard Luza joined the Hollandia-Kattenburg textile factory in Amsterdam on 10 May 1939. On Wednesday, 11 November 1942, around 4:30 PM, Willy Lages conducted the Sicherheitspolizei raid on the Hollandia factories. All exits were blocked, and the Jewish staff members were taken away that evening. Photographs of all workers taken away that evening, as well as those deported previously, appear in the 'Boek der tranen' [Book of tears].
Jewish Historical Museum, Documents collection, inv.nr B1376, 'Boek der tranen' [Book of tears]