Gertrud Liebenau, daughter of Sally Liebenau and Flora Liebenau-Wilhelm, arrived 26 June 1936 from Berlin in Den Haag, together with her husband and son, living for the time being in Hotel de Greef at Gevers Deynootweg 59. Her husband, Eduard van der Sluis, son of Hijman van der Sluis and Mijntje van Geldere, born 1897 in Rotterdam, has been “ officially de-registered” 28 February 1917 from the Rotterdam Peoples Registry to Germany. He was an office clerk and 20 years of age. Eduard van der Sluis presumably married in Berlin to Gertrud Liebenau where 25 October 1922 their son Ernst was born.
Eduard van der Sluis was born into a family with ten children; there was one stillborn child, one child (Michiel), has survived the war, three children, (an Eduard, a Hartog and Philip) have died before the war, of two children, (Rebecca Dina and Levie Hijman) is nothing further known and three children, namely Dientje Esther, Hartog and Eduard self have been killed in the Shoah, together with their families.
In 1936 the Eduard van der Sluis family came to Holland, lived in the beginning in Den Haag but moved 27 May 1937 to the Municipality of Rotterdam, where they ended up at Hoyledesingel 17 in the district of Hillegersberg. Most likely the parents of Gertrud have moved to that address at the same time too.
Her Mother, Flora Wilhelm passes away 15 October 1941 in Rotterdam and has been interred in the Jewish Cemetery Toepad of Rotterdam. Her father Sally Liebenay was deported 10 October 1941 to Camp Westerbork, put on transport 12 October to Auschwitz and upon arrival there immediately killed 15 October 1942.
Already 4 August 1942, the Van der Sluis family has been deported from Hillegersberg to Westerbork and a few days later, 7 August put on transport to Auschwitz. This transport has arrived there 10 August but it is not known when the family has lost their lives there. For Eduard van der Sluis, his wife Gertrud Liebenau and son Ernst the date of death has been established as 30 September 1942.
Sources: City Archive of Rotterdam, registrations in the Peoples Registry; family registration card of Eduard van der Sluis; Municipal Archive of Den Haag, family registration card of Eduard van der Sluis and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Eduard van der Sluis, Gertud Liebenau/Libenau and Ernst van der Sluis.