The Jacob and Sophia a’ Cohen Treves Family emigrate to South Africa from Amsterdam, Holland, thereby escaping the fate of most of their family who perished in the Holocaust

Number 07   The Glengorm Castle Steamship sailed from London for Cape Town on the 16th day of May 1929 – with the a’ Cohen Treves Family on board!

The family had fled from Spain and Portugal in the late 15th Century to escape the Inquisition. The various branches of the tree – maternal and paternal lines, migrated through countries including Belgium, France, Italy and Germany to Holland, primarily to Amsterdam, where they lived for a number of generations. Many were Diamond Cutters and Diamond Dealers.

Reflected in this picture is the ticket to South Africa from England, disembarking in May 1929, of Jacob (known as “Jaap”) a’ Cohen Treves his wife Sophia (often called “Phie”) and their children Margaretha and Marcelle. They had travelled from Amsterdam, where they had all been born, to England where they boarded the steamship for the trip to Cape Town. Jacob, the great – grandfather of Maya and Yair Schkolne, was to start a Diamond Cutting Factory in Wynberg Cape Town. The family lived first in Hollandia Flats in Wynberg Cape Town, which was built by the Dutch Jewish Community in Cape Town. For approximately the first year in South Africa, Jacob’s parents Moses a’ Cohen Treves and Grietjie a’ Cohen Treves ‘nee Vigevano also came to Cape Town and lived in Hollandia Flats.    They later returned to Holland where Grietjie died of cancer the day before the Nazis rounded up Moses and other members of the family. Moses perished in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp.    

Jaap a’ Cohen Treves was required to drop the Treves portion of the name by immigration officials when the family disembarked from the ship in Cape Town.    The house that he designed and moved to from Hollandia Flats, at 22 Silverlea Road, Wynberg was called: “Treves”.   

A third a’ Cohen Treves sister, Katy, was born soon after the family’s arrival in South Africa: on 12/05/1930. Katie sadly passed away at the age of 22 of pneumonia in a London Hospital where she was working as a nurse. She was buried at Ouderkerk, Beth Haim Cemetery, in Amsterdam on 5/02/1953.