Lion Brilleslijper was the 5th of the six children of Ephraim Brilleslijper and Duifje Roodveld and was born in Amsterdam on 23 March 1899. He became a tailor by trade and married Lea Canes on 20 August 1924 in Amsterdam. She was born there on 12 April 1895 as a daughter of Abraham Canes and Marianne van de Kar.
Before his marriage, Lion lived at home with his parents and sister Marianne in the Manegestraat 8 1st floor, but after his wedding in August 1924, he and his wife Lea moved into living space at Nieuwe Kerkstraat 143 1st level, where also their son Louis was born on 2 May 1926. Then, on 10 August 1927 the family moved to Ruyschstraat 53 but by the end of 1936, they were living in with Esther Klein and her husband Meijer Kan at the upperhouse of no.95 at the Nieuwendijk.
However, the stay there was short-lived because already on 16 February 1937 the family moved to Zaandam. One year later, on 9 May 1938, they were already registered at another address there: Tuinstrat 78. Four years later, on 23 May 1942 the family of Lion Brilleslijper lived in with his parents at Manegestraat 8 1st floor in Amsterdam and on 21 July 1942 they moved to the Plantage Franschelaan 15-upperhouse.
After the Jews in the Netherlands were registered with the Jewish Council in 1941 and 1942, Lion Brilleslijper was given a “Sperre because of function”. (an exemption from deportation because of function). Although he was a tailor by profession, he became an assistant “employment in Germany” for the Jewish Council on 20 July 1942, for which he received an I.D. no. A1184.
As a result of Lion’s “Sperre”, also his wife Lea and son Louis were exempted from deportation for the time being (“bis auf weiteres”). Louis Brilleslijper, who had been previously trained and educated to become a tailor, became even on 13 April 1943 still an “errand boy” at “Gebouw PIGOL” (PIGOL-building), the asylum for Portuguese-Israelitic Married Old People in Amsterdam.
However, on 27 May 1943 the Lion Brilleslijper-family was arrested and carried off to Westerbork, where they ended up in barrack 61. All “Sperres” and exemptions from deportation appeared to have largely been declared null and void by the Germans, that month of May. On 8 June 1943, Lion Brilleslijper, his wife Lea Canes and their son Louis Brilleslijper, together with more than 3000 other victims, among them the notorious Childrens transport from Vught, were deported to Sobibor.
The transport arrived there on 11 June 1943 where all 3017 deportees were immediately murdered in the gas chambers upon arrival there, among them all children and their accompagnants of the Childrens transport from Vught, and also the others, among them Lion Brilleslijper, his wife Lea Canes and their son Louis Brilleslijper. There were no suvivors.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Liepman Brilleslijper and Abraham Canes; archive cards of Lion Brilleslijper, Lea Canes and Louis Brilleslijper; residence card Nieuwendijk 95 Amsterdam/Lion Brilleslijper; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Lion Brilleslijper, Lea Brilleslijper-Canes and Louis Brilleslijper and the Wikipedia-website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/8 June 1943.