Johnny van der Sluis was a son of Israël van der Sluis and Betje Cohen. He was born on 4 August 1924 in the Molenaerstraat 30a in Haarlem. With his parents, he moved from Haarlem to Korte Mare 23 in Leiden in the later years of then 1930-s.
From data of the Jewish Lyceum Den Haag, it appears that Johnny attended the 4th class of the HBS department there in the scholastic year 1941/1942 and that he was promoted there to the 5th class. He started that new scholastic year probably per 1 September 1942.
Nothing is known of the fate that befell Johnny van der Sluis except that a note was made on his registration card of the Jewish Council after the war, which read: “2 January 1944 died in Neuengamme”, which in terms of year appears to contradict his official death certificate from Germany and the Netherlands, stating 1945. (The Joods Monument always keeps the official date of death from official certificates of death, whether of not drawn up by order of the Dutch Ministry of Justice).
It is also unknown how Johnny van der Sluis ended up in Neuengamme and when, but it is likely that this must have been between September 1942 and July 1943, somewhere in the period of his final school year at the Jewish Lyceum in The Hague.
Neuengamme was once one of the largest camps in Northern Germany; today only a few buildings and some factory halls remain, tucked away between the vast meadows, in the region “Vierlanden” near the hamlet of Neuengamme, about 18 km southeast of Hamburg.
Johnny van der Sluis was certainly employed there upon arrival as a forced labourer, probably in the brick factory that the SS operated there. The work also consisted of work for Walther (pistols), Borgward (trucks), Volkswagen, IG Farben (chemicals), Blohm & Voss (shipyard), Drager (gas masks) and Continental (truck tires).
The inhumane conditions in the camp, the outbreak of epidemics, a lack of food and the heavy work in the brick factory, among other things, gradually turned the prisoners into living wrecks and hundreds of prisoners died every day, including Johnny van der Sluis on 2 January 1945.
In accordance with his certificate of death made out by the Civil Registry of Hamburg, the Municipality of Leiden entered the death of Johnny van der Sluis on 16 April 1948 as death certificate 370 in the registers of death of Leiden, which stated that he has died on 2 January 1945 at 4 hours and 10 minutes in Hamburg-Neuengamme.
Sources include the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Johnny van der Sluis; several internet website about the concentration camp Neuengamme like the wikipedia website Neuengamme and the website Traces of War/concentration camp Neuengamme.