Simon David, the son of Isaac David and Elizabeth Velleman, still living at home with his parents and who worked as an office clerk, was born in Rotterdam on 21 June 1897 and was given the surname Velleman from his mother at birth. On 30 March 1903, seven months after Isaac David and Elizabeth Velleman were married in August 1902, it was recorded in a deed that Isaac David and Elizabeth Velleman “recognize their paternal and maternal relationship to a male child born on the 21st June 1897 out of Elizabeth Velleman ”and whereby he was legalized by Royal Decree on 21 July 1903 and Simon's family name was changed to “David”.
Simon lived with his parents in Rotterdam, since 1935 at Schieweg 3 in Rotterdam-North. Presumably as a result of the bombardment of Rotterdam on 14 May 1940, his parents decided to move and they ended up in the Van Speijkstraat 141 in Den Haag. Simon went with them and also his in 1932 married sister Hendrika with her husband Benjamin Barendse and their two children Isaac and Elisabeth. According to reports to the Germans by the Municipality of The Hague, they all still lived there in April 1942. In the summer of 1942, the occupier then decided that all Jews had to leave The Hague and from August onwards they started raids and deportations of the Jewish residents of the city to Westerbork.
Simon David had apparently already been called up to work in one of the Jewish labor camps in the Northern Netherlands sometime in the spring of 1942, but it is not known which camp that was. On August 31, 1942, he was sent from such a labor camp to Westerbork and was immediately sent to the East.
This transport, with in total 560 deportees, made a stop at Kozel, located about 80 km west from Auschwitz. There 200 boys and men between 15 and 50 years were forced to leave the train and most likelely, Simon was one ot them; they were deployed as forced labourers in one of the surrounding satellite camps of Auschwitz. Those, who remained in the train were transported onwards to Auschwitz and on arrival there killed in the gas chambers.
It is not known were Simon ended up in the end, but in total Simon had to do forced labor for about two years for the nazi’s. Also unknown is when exactly and under what circumstances he has lost his life. Therefore, the Dutch Ministry of Justice ordered after the war the Municipality of Den Haag to draw up a certificate of death for Simon David, in which is established that he has died on 31 March 1944 in Mid-Europe.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card of Isaac David, certificate of birth from Rotterdam nr. 5003 of 21 June 1897 for Simon David, a deed of legalization from Rotterdam nr. 3190 of 30 March 1903 for Simon David; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Simon David, the certificate of death C174 of 19 January 1942 made out in Den Haag for Simon David and the website Stichting Joods Erfgoed Den Haag.nl.