Louis Mechanicus was a son of Elias Mechanicus and Sara Gobes. He was born on 27 December 1901 in Amsterdam. In 1920 he was a carriage painter by profession. Later he worked as a painter for a building association. On 18 September 1935 he married in Amsterdam Margaretha Peper, who was born there on 8 February 1908 as a daughter of Levie Peper and Johanna Vos. Margaretha had another brother named Abraham and two sisters: Marianna and Bela, all still unmarried. Two other children from the Peper family, named Abraham and Joseph had died already in childhood.
Louis Mechanicus was the second child of that name, born into a family of eight children, where another brother, Samuel, has died in childhood too. His other siblings were Philip (well known by his diary “In Depot”), Benjamin, Jacob, Joseph and Meijer. In 1919 Louis was drafted into the National Militia where he had informed being the breadwinner. Based on that he was given one year suspension for being the breadwinner.
Since Louis and Margaretha were married, they lived as a couple at Manegestraat 12 3rd floor, a side street of the Nieuwe Kerkstraat in Amsterdam, where also their three children were born, viz. Leo on 17 Decembef 1937, Sarah on 1 August 1939 and Johan on 17 June 1941. On 20 March 1942 Louis was called up for “employment” in the so-called work expansion and ended up in the Jewish labor camp in Vledder in the Northern Netherlands.
Moreover, his wife and children were already summoned to report in Westerbork on 30 July 1942, but Louis, as an ex-soldier – and therefore also his family – was proposed by the Jewish Council for postponement of deportation. In the first instance, this led to actual postponements for former soldiers, KNIL military and those who fought for the fatherland in May 1940, along with a number of other categories, but soon not anymore. (source Raymund Schütz).
When all Jewish labor camps were liquidated by the Germans on 3 October 1942 and all forced labourers were carried off to Westerbork, also Louis Mechanicus ended up there. After the postponement of 30 July 1942, he had to wait there for his wife and children, who were also expected in Westerbork between 3 and 5 October 1942 a, but now in the context of the so-called family reunification.
When the Mechanicus family was complete again, they were deported to Auschwitz on 12 October 1942 in a transport of over 1700 deportees. Upon arrival there on 15 October 1942, Margaretha Mechanicus-Peper and he children Leo, Sarah and Johan were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwiz-Birkenau.
On the other hand, upon arrival in Auschwitz, Louis was selected for forced labor and given prisoner number 68058. His kind of work there is unknown. Known however is that apparently he was hospitalized twice in the prison hospital of Auschwitz I, in Block 20 and Block 28/7. In the prison hospital prisoners were often killed by means of phenol injections but it is not known whether that was the cause of Louis’ death.
Unclear is when Louis Mechanicus lost his life in Auschwitz, nor in what way and through which. After the war, a death certificate was drawn up for him by order of the Ministry of Justice in the Municipality of Amsterdam, in which it was established that he died in Auschwitz on 28 February 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, militia register/Louis Mechanicus, archive card of Louis Mechanicus and family registration card of Elias Mechanicus; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Louis Mechanicus, Margaretha Mechanicus-Peper and the children Leo, Sarah and Johan Mechanicus; info Raymund Schütz; website Museum & Memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau/Auschwitz Prisoners/Louis Mechanicus and the death certificate nr. 227 dated 7 December 1950 made out in Amsterdam for Louis Mechanicus.