Meijer Machiel Groenteman was a son of Jonas Groenteman and Schoontje Turfrijer. He was born on July 5, 1913 in Amsterdam and he was a tailor by profession. On 5 September 1934 he married Lena Kroonenberg in Amsterdam, who was born in Amsterdam on 23 May 1914 as the daughter of Willem Kroonenberg and Naatje Peperroot. The couple had three children, viz. John in 1935, Anne in 1936 and Jeannette in 1938.
After Meijer married Lena, they moved into a house at Vrolikstraat 241, 3rd floor, where their three children were born. On 26 February 1940, they moved to Nieuwe Kerkstraat 61 ground floor, where Meijer also had his atelier/workshop, where he made coats. His wife Lena was a machine stitcher.
Somewhere in the first half of 1942 and in the context of the so-called work expansion, Meijer Machiel Groenteman was called up to work in the Jewish labor camp “De Bruine Enk” on Hullerweg in Nunspeet. This camp was built in 1940 and in 1942 the first Jews arrived there to mainly do earthworks.
Even before the Germans liquidated all Jewish labor camps on the night of 2 to 3 October 1942 and carried off the Jewish forced laborers to Westerbork (sometimes partly on foot and train), from where they were sent on to the extermination camps in the “East”, Meijer Machiel was already sent to Westerbork before that, where he must have arrived about 20/22 September.
His wife Lena Kroonenberg and her three children John, Anne and Jeannette were brought to Westerbork and registered there on 23 September, and the entire family, father, mother and three children, were deported to Auschwitz on 25 September 1942
Upon arrival on 28 September, Meijer Machiel Groenteman passed the selection and was put to work in some “Arbeitskommando” (workforce). It is not known which Kommando it was, where and what the nature of the work was. Also The exact date of his death is unknown.
Therefore, after the war, the Dutch authorities has established, partly on the basis of testimonies of survivors and research, that Meijer Machiel Groenteman could no longer be alive after 31 January 1943. The City of Amsterdam was then instructed to draw up a death certificate for him, which states that Meijer Machiel Groenteman died on 31 January 1943 in Auschwitz.
His wife Lena Kroonenberg, together with the three children John, Anne and Jeannette, were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau after arriving on 28 September 1942.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family registration cards of Jonas Groenteman archive cards of Meijer Machiel Groenteman, Lena Kroonenberg and the three Groenteman children; website Jewish Work Camps/De Bruine Enk; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Meijer Machiel Groenteman, Lena Groenteman-Kroonenberg and of John, Anne and Jeanette Groenteman; website Museum & Memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau/prisoners/Meijer Groenteman, the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten uit Nederland.nl (Dutch language only) and the death certificate for Meijer Machiel Groenteman, no. 209 dated 20 October 1950, drawn up in Amsterdam and registered in the A-register 55-folio 36verso.