Biography

The fate of Levie van Loggem, his wife Rebecca Brilleslijper and their children Marcel & Fiena.

Levie van Loggem was born 23 November 1902 in Amsterdam as son of Mozes van Loggem and Roosje Kanes. On 4 November he married in Amsterdam Rebecca Brilleslijper, who was born 23 July 1906 as the daughter of Ruben Brilleslijper and Vogeltje Barend. The couple had two children, namely Marcel in 1927 and Fiena in 1929. The family as a whole was murdered during the Shoah.

His father-in-law, who was born in 1887 in Amsterdam, arrived 29 March 1903 from Schaarbeek near Brussels in Amsterdam to marry there Vogeltje Barend. They lived at Foeliedwarsstraat in the old city-centre of Amsterdam, where five children Van Loggem were born. Daughter Rebecca, born in 1906, went with her parents on 5 July 1919 as they left again for Schaarbeek. Five years later, on 26 September 1924 she returned from Belgium in Amsterdam, to be married there six weeks later to Levie van Loggem.   

Levie van Loggem was a merchant in fruit and vegetables, just as his fathet Mozes van Loggem and father-in-law Ruben Brilleslijper. Unlike his father-in-law, his father earned a living in Amsterdam. Levie lived at home in Amsterdam at different addresses in the Valkenburgerstraat and Nieuwe Achtergracht, until he moved in November 1924 into his own home at Marnixstraat 246 with his newly wed wife.

A few months after the birth of their son Marcel on 7 April 1927, the young family moved 20 September of that year to Schaarbeek near Brussels. However after one year, they returned to Amsterdam where they came living again at Marnixstraat 246 and where on 20 March 1929 their daughter Fiena was born.            

On 17 Septembe 1936 Roosje Kanes, Levie van Loggem’s mother, passed away in Den Haag and she was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen. Levie then moved in February 1938 with wife and children to a house at Nieuwe Prinsengracht 28 downstairs, which became also their last known address in Amsterdam.

It is unclear what happened to the family of Levie van Loggem in the month of July of 1942. They may have wanted to go into hiding, to escape the “Arbeitseinsatz”  and deportation,  or were arrested because not wearing the Jew-star, or they have been betrayed – that is unknown – but it is known that Levie, his wife Rebecca and their two children Marcel and Fiena were arrested by the Gestapo, with Levie and Rebecca being brought into the Scheveningen prison on 23 July 1942, better known as the “Oranjehotel”.

Levie and his wife Rebecca spent more than four week in Scheveningen prison and were interrogated by the notorious SS-man Franz Fischer of the Judenreferat IVB4 department, who was responsible for anti-Jewish measures, deportation and arreds of people in hiding. But also the persecution of Jews who did not wear a star or otherwise did not adhere to the measures. Failure to war the Jew-star could have been a reason to be arrested so early. After more than four weeks, on 23 August, they were transferred from Scheveningen prison to Westerbork and deported the next day, on 24 August 1942 to Auschwitz.

That fatal day in July, Marcel and Fiena were arrested together with their parents and transferred to Den Haag, but on orders of the Sicherheitsdienst, they were housed the Municipal Nursing home for Children in the Bilitonstraat 18 there. From notes, made on their registration cards of the Jewish Council - “Aus Transport von 25-VII-'42 Den Haag Westerbork am 24 Aug auf Transport gegangen” (From transport 25 July 42 Den Haag-Westerbork on 24 Aug put on transport) – it appeared that the children already were transferred from Den Haag to Westerbork on 25 July 1942. There they had to wait for their parents, who were sent from the Oranjehotel in Scheveningen to Westerbork on 23 August, so Marcel and Fiena could be put on transport, together with their parents the next day, on 24 August 1942 to Auschwitz.

The transport of 24 August 1942 with 519 deportees arrived in Auschwitz on 25/26 August and the database of the website Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum/prisoners shows that they all have entered the camp. Because the exact date of death of the Van Loggem family is not known, the Dutch Ministry of Justice after the war ordered the City of Amsterdam to draw up certificates of death for them, in which has been established that Rebecca van Loggem-Brilleslijper and her daughter Fiena van Loggem have died on 26 August 1942 in Auschwitz and that Levie van Loggem and his son Marcel van Loggem have died 30 September 1942 in Auschwitz.

Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Levie van Loggem, archive cards of Levie van Loggem, Rebecca Brilleslijper, Marcel en Fiena van Loggem; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Levie van Loggem, Rebecca van Loggem-Brilleslijper, Marcel van Loggem en Fiena van Loggem; Municipal Archive of Den Haag/Municipal Nursing Home for children, Bilitonstraat 18; NIOD/family of Levie van Loggem; National Monument Oranjehotel/Levie and Rebecca van Loggem; website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland; website Jewish Heritage Den Haag/roundups and deportations August 1942, death certificate Levie van Loggem,A46-fol.85 nr. 499 -for Marcel van Loggem A46-fol.85v, nr. 500 - for Rebecca van Loggem-Brilleslijper A46-fol.63v nr. 369 and for  Fiena van Loggem A46 - fol.85 - nr. 498, all made out 18 Auguts 1950 in Amsterdam.

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