Jacoba Adriana de Heer was a daughter of Jacob de Heer and Roosje van der Ham. She was born on 11 December 1895 in Rotterdam and married there Meijer Cohen on 13 October 1921, a son of Philip Cohen and Mina Eismann. Meijer was born on 2 July 1896 in Rotterdam, earned his living as a merchant with water pipe articles and as commercial traveller with tools. Meijer and Jacoba had a son together, Philip Jacob, who was born on 16 February 1923.
One year later, on 20 March 1924, the Cohen family moved from Rotterdam-city to the Graaf Jan van Nassaustraat 9c in Hillegersberg. There they stayed till in February 1928, when they were officially unsubscribed from the Peoples Registry of Hillegersberg to “probably” Antwerp. However, at the end of April 1936 the family returned from the Belgian Bressoux near Luik (Liège) in Amsterdam, where they moved into a house in the Graaf Florisstraat 25 1st floor, a side street between Wibautstraat and Weesperzijde. On 2 May 1939 Meijer Cohen was admitted as a patient in the Joodsche Invalide at Weesperplein 1, where he passed away on 3 October 1939. He was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen.
The widowed Jacoba Adriana Cohen-de Heer was arrested on 20 April 1943 in Amsterdam and carried off to Westerbork, where she was accommodated in barrack 68, waiting for her deportation. She made fierce attempts to escape deportation: she submitted a request based on her G1 descent (quarter Jewish, with one Jewish grandparent) and evidence would be sent to the Reichs Commissariat (Calmeyer). The N.I.H.S (Dutch Israelitic Main Synagogue would send a so-called “Negative Declaration”, whereby Westerbork requested the Reichs Commisioner’s Office to send photo’s of the evidence for the Negative Declaration, for which the name and date of birth of the spouse was also required, as well the name and place of marriage, etc. etc.
All in all, it turned out to be a hopeless attempt: on 1 May 1943 a note was placed on Jacoba's registration card, stating that an answer had been received on 30 April but that further steps had no purpose. “The yellow jew-card hereby for archiving”. Already on 27 April 1943, Jacoba Adriana Cohen-de Heer had been deported to Sobibor where she was immediately murdered in the gas chambers there upon arrival on 30 April 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of Jacob de Heer and Meijer de Heer, ditto for Meijer de Heer –Municipality of Hillegersberg; the city Archive of Amsterdam, archive cards of Meijer Cohen, Jacoba Adriana de Heer; website hetstenenarchief.nl/ grave Meijer Cohen; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Jacoba Adriana Cohen-de Heer.