Blasiusstraat 35-II

Paulina Lewis was born on May 17, 1864 in Kopyl, not far from Minsk. She certainly had two sisters and a brother who were also born in Kopyl. Her father Elias was a sjochet (ritual butcher) and mohel (authorized to perform circumcisions). In the 1870s, the family moved to Leipzig. On November 2, 1891, she married Mendel Eidinow, a diamond cutter from Moscow. The family moved to the second floor of 35 Blasiusstraat in 1891, in a neighborhood where many Jews would settle who, like the couple, came from Polish and Baltic cities of the Russian Empire.

Mendel's business went well and he built a network on the Diamond Exchange. He also did charity. He was a devout man who was involved in various Jewish societies, including the Kehilas Ya'akow, who had a shul across the street from 1907. When Mendel died suddenly on December 31, 1915, Paulina was left alone with her mother. From that time on, others moved in on the floor, often also devout Eastern Jews.

During the occupation, Paulina moved to the Joodsche Invalide in 1942, after having lived in the house for more than 50 years. On the evening of March 8, 1943, shortly after the curfew, 250 Jewish Amsterdammers were transported from the Panamakade on the 17th 'Krankentransport' to Westerbork. Among them were Paulina Eidinow-Lewis and two other residents of the Joodsche Invalide, who had been violently evicted a week earlier. Paulina was placed in hospital in Westerbork. Although Paulina was zurückgestellt, thus temporarily exempted from deportation, she was deported to Sobibór a week later. If she had survived the three-day train journey, she was murdered on arrival on March 20, 1943. She was 78 years old.

With the destruction of the Jewish community in the Shoah, after nearly sixty years, the specific Jewish character of the neighborhood also came to an end.

Photo and information courtesy of: J. Stienen

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