LEON VAN LEEUWEN CORP.

ABOUT US

Leon Van Leeuwen
(1923-2010)

Leon van Leeuwen was a superior businessman and a beloved friend to many around the world.
Born and raised in Holland in the years leading up to World War II, Leon grew up in the casing business. His father, Henri, ran several successful casing businesses; first in partnership with his brother-in-law, and then on his own. Young Leon accompanied his father to work in Rotterdam during school vacations. He described his father’s strategy in his autobiography, Let My Half Cry:
"…Father rented a small factory and started with two English productions of beef casings and chitterlings. Since his overhead was low, and almost everyone seemed to love him, Father did well in no time. He always told me, “If you want to last in business, keep your overhead down.” Though businesses suffered, most of the casing dealers did well in the Depression.
But with the rise of Hitler in Europe, life for the Jewish van Leeuwen family became precarious. In 1939, shortly after the Germans invaded Poland, Henri van Leuween came home with seven cruise ship tickets for his wife and six children, so they could escape to America. He stayed behind to run his business, telling his family, “A captain has to stay with his ship… By myself, I can always get out. With six children we have no chance.”
Leon and his family spent the war years in New York City. Henri van Leeuwen was picked up in a razzia (round-up) in 1943, and sent to the Westerborg concentration camp. He was then transferred to Bergen Belsen, where in 1945 he was miraculously picked to be part of prisoner exchange between the Nazis and the Allies. He arrived in Switzerland weighing only 75 pounds, was hospitalized, and reunited with his family in the United States six months later.
Leon always attributed his own success to his father:
"Without him, I might have never made a living. He gave me the opportunity to learn the casing business in 1955, and that is how I have made my living ever since."