Sloim Copoloviciu, born 21 May 1880 in Rumania as son of Moisa and Veisla Copoloviciu, lived in Rotterdam but up from 1916 in Amsaterdam. On 15 December 1921 he married in Rotterdam at the age of 41 Sophia van Gich, a daughter of Abraham van Gich and Helena Wessel. She was 23 years of age then. The couple had two children, namely Maurits in 1922 and Helena Sera in 1927. Only their daughter survived the Holocaust.
After the wedding was concluded, Sloim and Sophoa lived at various addresses in Amsterdam, where their children were born, among others at Van Breestraat, Nieuwe Achtergracht and at Van Kinsbergenstraat. They moved to Zaandam in 1929 and on 25 June 1930 to the Arnoldystraat 22 in Haarlem, where both the children spent much of their childhood.
However according to the registration cards of the Jewish Council, the last address of the family was Nieuwe Herengracht 127: but this relocation from Haarlem to the Nieuwe Herengracht was a forced and mandatory move, ordered by the occupiers. As “foreigners and Jews” they were forced to move to the ghetto of Amsterdam, where the Copoloviciu family ended up with 4 persons in one room. Helena Sere slept in that room with their parents, only Maurits had a place to sleep at the attic.
From data of one of those registration cards it appeared that the mandatory relocation from Haarlem to Amsterdam had been taken place presumably mid 1942. On 9 February they were arrested and carried off to Westerbork, where the Copoloviciu family stayed in barrack 63 from 9 February 1943 till 5 April 1944. Then the family was put on transport.
The transport of 5 April 1944 included only one deportation train with five different destinations: 240 Jews in freight wagons to Auschwitz; 101 Jews in two passenger wagons to Bergen Belsen; 289 Jews in two wagons to Theresienstadt; 41 women and children to Ravensbrück (one wagon) and 28 men to Buchenwald (one wagon) mainly Romanian Jews. In Assen the freight wagons were linked to 625 Jews from Belgium for Auschwitz.
Sophia Copoloviciu, togehter with her daughter Helena Sera were deported to Ravensbrück and from there, they arrived later in Bergen Belsen. There Sophia Copoloviciu-van Gigh succumbed on 31 March 1945, four weeks before the liberation. Her daughter Helena Sera has survived the Holocaust and could return to the Netherlands, where she got married and had a family.
Sloim Copoloviciu ended up in Buchenwald, where he lost his life on 24 February 1945.
From details of his registration card of Maurits Copoloviciu from the Archives of Jewish Council it is known that he has had an education (school) at MULO-level, that he had a job as office clerk (accountancy) and after the “relocation” of the family from Haarlem to Amsterdam he worked as houseboy at the Old Peoples Rest Home “v.d.Byl”, which was located too at the same address Nieuwe Herengracht 127 in Amsterdam.
Maurits was deported too on 5 April 1944 and arrived as forced laborer in the “Extern Kommando Zeitz”, where he lost his life in 1945. This Command was one of the many satelite camps of Buchenwald and was located about 40 km south from Leipzig. The history 1933-1945 of this little town Zeitz is findable on internet https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitz and tells among others that in 1937/1938 a plant has been built for production of artificial fuels made out of lignite and which has been bombed in 1945 various times.
Prisoners were not permitted to hide in shelters during bombardments as sheltering was only allowed for civilians and guards. Because of this prohibition there were many casualties among the population of prisoners during those bombardments. On 10 April 1945 there was this heavy attack on the depot of Zeitz, and during this bombardment tank wagons with chlorine gas exploded. Presumably, as a result of this bombardment, Maurits Copoloviciu has died then, as his death was registered on 12 April 1945.
Sources include the city Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive card of Sloim Copolovici; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of “Shoim Copolovincim”, “Sophia Copolovicin-v.Gich”, “Maurits Copolovici” and “Helena Copolovici”, the Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl as well additions by Helena Sera Schoenmaker-Copolociciu from Zuid-Laren
For the history of Zeitz, see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitz