Salomon Barend, born in 1909 in Amsterdam was the eldest son of David Barend and Esther Wijnschenk. He married 26 May 1932 Elisabeth Dresden in Amsterdam, who was born in 1910 in Borgerhout (Antwerp) as daughter of Joseph Dresden and Grietje Schrijver.
After their marriage, the Barend-Dresden couple lived at Eemsstraat 44 1st floor in Amsterdam, til the big raid of 20 June 1943 in Amsterdam, which has been prepared by the Germans in the greatest secret. These round-ups took place in Amsterdam-South and in the Transvaal district of Amsterdam-East. More than 5500 Jews were then arrested and taken to Westerbork.
On 20 June 1943 Salomon Barend and his wife Elisabeth Dresden were arrested and ended up in Westerbork; he in barrack 62 and she in barrack 65. However, they belonged to the so-called “Diamond Jews”, (“Diamant Juden”), “indispensable for the Germans”, reason why both have been released from Westerbork on 17 July and returned to Amsterdam. However, in August 1943 they still had to move to Reitzstraat 29 1st floor in the Transvaal district of Amsterdam-East.
On 19 November 1943 both were taken to Westerbork again where they then ended up in barrack 68. On 19 Mey 1944 they were both put on transport from Westerbork to Bergen Belsen. (the departure is recorded in the famous Westerbork film. 245 Roma were added to this transport and in Assen, the train was coupled to wagons with 507 deportees from the 25th convoy from Caserne Dossin from Mechelen). A part of this transport, 453 persons, were deported to Auschwitz and another part, 238 persons, among them Salomon Barend and Elisabeth Barend-Dresden, to Bergen Belsen.
It appeared from notes on the registration card of Salomon Barend, that on 4 December 1944 he was deported from Bergen Belsen to Oranienburg. The final fate of Salomon Barend is known, however his exact place and date of his death is unknown. Therefore, Dutch authorities after the war have established his date of death as on 31 May 1945 in Bergen Belsen, a date that is certain that he was no longer alive.
It appeared from notes on the registration card of Elisabeth Dresden that she has been deported from Bergen Belsen to Ravensbrück on 5 December 1944. But towards the end of the war a deportation from Ravensbrück to Bergen Belsen took place. How that transport went is unknown, but Elisabeth Barend-Dresden was among the prisoners and she died, probably due to exhaustion and hardships, at Eidelstedt near Hamburg.
Sources among others: City Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Salomon Barend and Elisabeth Dresden; website Joodserfgoed Rotterdam.nl; the wikipedia list of Jew Transports from the Netherlands and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Salomon Barend and Elisabeth Barend-Dresden.