Louis van Tijn was the third of the four children of Izaak van Tijn and Saartje van Meer. He was born in Den Haag on 25 August 1905 but moved already two months later with his family, on 14 October 1905 to Magdalenastraat 1 in Utrecht, where his father became a doorkeeper at the Israëlitic Orphanage.
Until 14 November 1927, Louis van Tijn lived at Utrecht, but left then for Leeuwarden, where he got married on 21 June 1932 to the 25-year-old Polish Rachel Lubinski, a daughter of Abram Lubinski and Esther Cyn. She was from Lubien, where she was born on 17 Janary 1907.
After the wedding was concluded, the couple left for Huizum, a neighbourhood in the former district of Leeuwarderadeel, nowadays Leewarden. Louis was employed as a department manager in the Frisian branch of Gerzon’s Modemagazijnen in Leeuwarden, located at Nieuwstad 126. (after the war, this branch has not been reopened anymore).
Half a year later, on 11 November 1932, Louis and Rachel left for Utrecht. The couple had two children, viz. Esther, who was born in Utrecht on 21 September 1934. After 1936 the family moved to Groningen, where Izaäk was born on 29 August 1938. The last known address of the Louis van Tijn family was in Leiden, where Louis was head of Gerzon’s Modemagazijnen at the Breestraat. Their homeaddress in Leiden was Tiboel Siegenbeekstraat 7.
As of 1 February 1940, Louis van Tijn also became the administrator of the Jewish Funeral Service in Leiden. In August 1942 the family was registered at the Jewish Council and on the basis of his activities for the Jewish Community, he was “gesperrt because of function” - exempted from deportation until further notice and also his wife and children were provisionally exempt from deportation.
However on 18 March 1943 all family members were arrested and carried off to Westerbork where they were housed in barack 68. On 11 May they were all put on transport to Sobibor. This transport which in total contained 1446 deportees, arrived there on 14 May 1943, after which Rachel van Tijn-Lubinski and her two children Esther and Izaäk were murdered immediately in the gas chambers.
Louis van Tijn however has been selected there to be transferred to the peat cutter camp in Dorohucza, where he eventually lost his life on 30 November 1943.
Sources include the Municipal Archive of Den Haag/birth certificate 4266 for Louis van Tijn; the Utrecht Archive/Peoples Registry/Magdalenastraat 1 and the family registration card of Izaak van Tijn; person card of Louis van Tijn from Leeuwarden; Leewarden wedding certificate 172 Louis van Tijn x Rachel Lubinski; family registration card from Huizum for Louis van Tijn; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Louis van Tijn, Rachel van Tijn-Lubinski and Esther and Izaäk van Tijn; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and additions of other vistitors of the website.