Stumbling Stones Lourens Costerstraat 15

These memorial stones (so called Stolpersteine of stumbling blocks) commemorate:

family De Vries

The small copper plaques, in the pavement in front of houses of which the (mostly Jewish) residents were murdered by the Nazis, mention the name, date of birth and place (mostly a concentration camp) and date of death.

In many other cities, mainly in Germany but also in other European countries, the memorials also can be found. There are already many thousands of these plaques and their number is still counting. Almost all Stolpersteine are laid by the German artist himself, Gunter Demnig.

ELIASAR DE VRIES
March 20, 1884 (Amsterdam) - August 31, 1942 (Auschwitz)
LOURENS COSTER STREET 15
Eliasar de Vries lived with his twin brother Jacob de Vries and their families (together six children) at Lourens Costerstraat 15. The twin brothers owned a fruit shop and sold fruit on the market. The brothers married two sisters on the same day (November 5, 1913): Matje and Jeannette Schellevis. Eliasar married Jeannette. Together they had four children, of whom only their eldest daughter Suzanna (born 28 February 1915) survived the war. In 1936 Jeannette Schellevis (47 years old) died in an accident.
On August 24, 1942, many Jewish Haarlemmers received a call to report for Westerbork. This was followed by a raid on August 25. On August 28, most of them were deported to Auschwitz. Also Eliasar de Vries together with his daughters Elisabeth and Dora, his twin brother Jacob and his sister-in-law Matje.
Transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz 28 August 1942.
Murdered in Auschwitz on August 31, 1942.
He was 58 years old.

JACOB DE VRIES
March 20, 1884 (Haarlem) - August 31, 1942 (Auschwitz)
LOURENS COSTER STREET 15
Jacob de Vries lived with his brother Eliasar and his family at 15 Lourens Costerstraat. Together they ran a fruit business. He married Matje Schellevis on 5 November 1913, an older sister of his twin brother's wife. Together they had two daughters, Suzanna and Elisabeth, who both survived the war.
Transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz 28 August 1942.
Murdered in Auschwitz on August 31, 1942.
He was 58 years old.

MATJE DE VRIES SHELLFISH
May 5, 1883 (Amsterdam) - August 31, 1942 (Auschwitz)
LOURENS COSTER STREET 15
The sisters Matje and Jeannette Schellevis married the twin brothers Jacob and Eliasar de Vries on the same day (November 5, 1913) and lived together with their families in the same house. Matthew married Jacob. They had two daughters, Suzanna and Elisabeth, who both survived the war.
Transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz 28 August 1942.
Murdered in Auschwitz on August 31, 1942.
She was 59 years old.

ELISABETH DE VRIES
February 19, 1917 (Haarlem) - August 31, 1942 (Auschwitz)
LOURENS COSTER STREET 15
Elisabeth was the second eldest daughter of Eliasar de Vries and Jeanette Schellevis. She was unmarried and worked as a maid.
Transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz 28 August 1942.
Murdered in Auschwitz on August 31, 1942.
She was 25 years old.

BENJAMIN DE FRIES
May 22nd, 1919 (Haarlem) - March 31st, 1944 (Sakrau)
LOURENS COSTER STREET 15
Benjamin was the only son of Eliasar de Vries and Jeannette Schellevis. He was an electrician.
Benjamin arrived in Westerbork on October 3, 1942, presumably from a labor camp in the Netherlands. From Westerbork he was deported to Auschwitz on October 16, 1942. Together with other men between the ages of 15 and 50, he was forced to live in Cosel, about 80 km. west of Auschwitz, get off the train. The selected men were forced to work in one of the many labor camps in the vicinity of Auschwitz, including Sakrau, which also functioned as a transit camp and infirmary. In the absence of individual information, the official date of death of many of them has been set as March 31, 1944.
Transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz 16 October 1942.
Murdered in Sakrau (or one of the other camps around Auschwitz) before March 31, 1944.
He was 24 years old.