On June 27, 2025, new Stolpersteine (Stumbling Stones) have been laid at Roerstraat 12 in Amsterdam. Here lived Eveline Levie-Eisendrath, her husband Machiel Levie (call name Michel), their daughter Marianne Levie and Michel’s mother Marianna Levie-Hamburger. They had many Jewish neighbours, as in the Roerstraat one Stolperstein follows the next. The street leads into the Merwedeplein. Here, Stolpersteine have been laid for Otto, Edith, Margot and Anne Frank. Perhaps they met each other in passing? During the ceremony, An Huitzing from the Stichting-Stolpersteine association in the Netherlands pointed out the significance of Günter Demnig's art project. Since 1992, the small square brass plaques have been laid in 31 European countries to commemorate the fate of people who were deported, persecuted and murdered during the National Socialist era. Over 110,000 Stolpersteine have already been laid, 3,752 of them in Amsterdam so far.

Stolpersteine for Marianna Levie-Hamburger, Machiel Levie and Eveline Levie-Eisendrath, © Frans Cremer

Marianna Levie-Hamburger and Michel Levie
Marianna Levie-Hamburger was born in 1861 in Aarlanderveen and traded on the Amsterdam diamond exchange. She married a diamond cutter from Groningen, Abraham Levie. In 1883 they had their first son, Michel, who was born in Geldersekade in the heart of old Amsterdam. One year later, Marianna and Abraham moved with Michel to Antwerp, which was then developing into a centre of the diamond trade, where his brother Josephus was born in August of the same year. They moved back, first to Haarlem and then to Amsterdam, where another brother Andries was born in 1887. He died only six months old. In 1910, Michel was conscripted into the Wielrijders Regiment (bicycle regiment) and a year later transferred to the Landwehr Regiment, from which he was discharged at the end of the First World War in 1918. He became a civil servant with the city council of Amsterdam. His niece Ann Hamburger was head of the laundry department of the Jewish Hospital on Weesperplein, Amsterdam, where he met Eveline Eisendrath. 

Eveline Levie-Eisendrath
Eveline was a descendant of the Eisendrath family of Dorsten. Her grandfather, Baruch Eisendrath, was the first child of Samson Nathan and Julia Eisendrath. Baruch Eisendrath had moved to Amsterdam by 1855. With his wife Eva Witmondt (1824-1880) he had three sons, among them Samson Eisendrath, who was born in Amsterdam on July 19, 1857. Samson and his wife Henriette Eisendrath-Wolf were Eveline Levie-Eisendrath’s parents. She was born in 1884 in Amsterdam, the youngest of four siblings: Henri Eisendrath (born 1875) died in Brussel in 1935. Bernard Eisendrath (born 1881) and Rosette Beer-Eisendrath (born 1882) were murdered by the Nazis in 1942. Eveline Levie-Eisendrath worked as a nurse until the day she married Michel.

The family Levie-Eisendrath
Michel and Eveline married in 1920. The week before their marriage, they got an apartment at Ranonkelkade 31 in Amsterdam. Michel’s mother Marianna Levie-Hamburger, who had divorced in 1916, also moved in with them. At the beginning of 1921, Michel was appointed to the social service. In the same year, on July 2, their daughter Marianne was born.

Marianne Levie, Michel Levie, Marianna Levie-Hamburger, Eveline Levie-Eisendrath, © Frans Cremer

In 1927, the whole family moved to Weesperzijde along the river Amstel and in June 1930 to Roerstraat 12. This street lies in the Rivierenbuurt residential area, which was built in the 1920s and 1930s. As many apartments were empty, people who moved there did not have to pay rent for the first 3 to 6 months. The family Levie-Eisendrath were the first residents at this address. On October 6, 1940, all Jewish civil servants in the Netherlands were dismissed without notice, including Michel. In August 1942, the family received a notice to report for deportation. In view of the short deadline for departure, they decided not to apply to the Jewish Council for a deferment. They took the streetcar to Muiderpoort station, where they changed to the train to Kamp Westerbork. The tickets for the streetcar and the train had been attached to the notice for deportation. Their daughter survived thanks to her name placed on the so-called Calmeyer-list. The last sign of life from her parents Michel and Eveline is a farewell letter dated Wednesday, September 2, 1942, from Kamp Westerbork. They were deported with the next transport train, number 714, on Friday, September 4 to Camp Auschwitz in Poland. They were declared dead on Monday, September 7, 1942. Eveline was one of 46 descendants of Baruch Eisendrath’s family in the Netherlands who perished in the concentration camps. Michel and Eveline were both 58 years old and Marianne was 80 when they were murdered. We remember them by laying the Stolpersteine at Roerstraat 12 in Amsterdam. 

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