Simon Cohen, born 15 November 1893 in Coevorden, was a son of Mozes Cohen and Ester Mirian Roos. He was unmarried. Simon was born into a family with four children; he himself and his sister Mirian were killed in the Shoah. His sisters Jeannette and Jacoba Dina have survived the war, but also his mother Ester Mirian Roos was killed during the Holocaust. His father, butcher by trade, passed away in Coevorden at the age of 38 years on 29 May 1902. In 1908 Simon was unsubscribed from the Peoples Registry of Coevorden to Groningen.
Simon Cohen led a roving life. He stayed in various cities in the Netherlands, such as in Enschede, in Rotterdam, in Amsterdam, in Antwerp, where he provided for himself by working in different jobs as rag sorter, warehouse clerk and vendor of fancy articles. On 10 February 1930 Simon arrived again in Amsterdam where he ended up at the address 2nd Oosterparkstraat 73, after which he definitively moved ten times in the city; his last known addresses werd Dapperstraat 37-3rd floor in 1938, Linneausstraat 24-2nd floor in 1940 and per 11 April 1941 he ended up at Wijtenbachstraat 44-ground floor.
It is not known whether Simon Cohen was earlier employed in one of the Jewish Labor camps in Holland, but it is certain that at the time of the large-scale raids in Amsterdam early October 1942, Simon was brought in Westerbork between 3 and 5 October, from where he was deported to “the East” on 16 October 1942.
The transport of 16 October 1942 contained in total 1710 persons who were deported to Auschwitz. However, the train stopped at Kozel, about 80 km. west from Auschwitz, where 570 boys and men between 15 and 50 years forcedly had to leave the train, to be employed in as forced labourers in the surrounding satellite camps of Auschwitz. Those who remained in the train were transported onwards to Auschwitz to be killed there.
Simon Cohen belonged to the group who had to leave the train in Kozel and ended up in the so called "Reichsautobahnlager Annaberg", located between the modern Wroclaw and Katowice in Poland. There he lost his life due to exhaustion and hardship (which was called there “Herzschwäche” (hart failure)). However, by establishing the date of death of Simon Cohen, the official date is maintained as stated after the war by the Dutch Department of Justice.
Sources: City Archive of Amsterdam, archive card of Ester Mirian Roos, archive card and family registration card of Simon Cohen; City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card (peoples registry) of Simon Cohen; website wiewaswie.nl; website Alle Drenten, peoples registry of Coevorden; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Simon Cohen and Edward Haduch, Kedzierzyn-Kozle (Poland), the official death certificate of Simon Cohen, issued by German authorities (Standesamt) of Annaberg