Mijer Konijn, an errand boy and the son of Simon Konijn and Mary Potzer, married Margaretha Swart, the third child of Marcus Swart and Betje van Beezem, in Amsterdam on 18 July 1928. Margaretha died in 1934. The couple had four children: Mary, Marcus, Betty and Lia. In 1941 the four children resided in the Centraal Israëlitisch Wees- en Doorgangshuis [Jewish orphanage] in Leiden.
Mijer Konijn joined the Hollandia-Kattenburg textile factory in Amsterdam on 28 February 1939. On Wednesday, 11 November 1942, around 4:30 PM, Willy Lages conducted the Sicherheitspolizei raid on the Hollandia factories. All exits were blocked, and the Jewish staff members were taken away that evening. Photographs of all workers taken away that evening, as well as those deported previously, appear in the 'Boek der tranen' [Book of tears].
Mijer Konijn was arrested and charged with distributing the underground newspaper De Waarheid on the Hollandia company premises and inciting sabotage of raincoat production for the Nazi forces by slowing the work process or tampering with the conveyor belt. In January 1943 he and four other Hollandia employees stood trial in Utrecht. Bernard Luza was later regarded as the leader of the group. The prosecution demanded the death penalty for all members of the group. Luza and Mijer Konijn were sentenced to death, the three others to the house of correction. One of these three was Jacob Smeer. Mijer Konijn was executed in Scheveningen on 15 February 1943.
Mijer Konijn wrote a farewell letter to his parents (letter from private collection): "Dear parents,
I am sorry to inform you that on Monday at ten o'clock I will be executed by a firing squad, so I will be leaving this world. I hope that your lives will improve, and that this war will soon be over. That would be best for all of mankind. I may soon join my wife. I will die bravely; we all die anyway, some of us sooner, others later, that is the will of God. I could have died during my operation ten years ago, so I have had another ten years. What a pity I was unable to say goodbye to you. I so wanted to see you one more time, as well as the girls. But perhaps it is better this way to avoid much sorrow. Please take good care of my children, and tell them that I have thought about them a lot. They have never left my mind for a moment. Tell them to take good care of each other and to help one another throughout their lives. Now they no longer have a father or a mother. I would have liked to continue caring for them, but God's will was otherwise. So I will place my soul in God's hands. I have one more request. I have a cigarette case and a wristwatch. Please give them to Max. Then he will have a keepsake from me, his father. Please distribute the portraits among the children. I must write quickly, as time is running out. I hope my children will live long and happy lives. My final thoughts are with them. I will no longer be alive when they receive this letter."
The full name of the son referred to as Max in this letter was Marcus. Mijer Konijn's four children left the orphanage and were caught during a raid. They were killed at Sobibor on 2 July 1943. The eldest was fourteen and the youngest ten.
Copies remain of the marriage certificate of Mijer Konijn and Margaretha Swart and of the birth certificates of Margaretha Swart, Mary Konijn, Marcus Konijn, Betty Konijn and Lia Konijn.
Jewish Historical Museum, Documents collection, inv.nr B1376, 'Boek der tranen' [Book of tears] and inv nr 12902
A. Bockxmeer, “De ramp bij Hollandia Kattenburg”, Het Parool 7 November 1992, 21-22
B. Braber, Zelfs als wij zullen verliezen. Joden in verzet en illegaliteit in Nederland 1940-1945 (Amsterdam, 1990) 114-115.