Joseph van West was the youngest of the nine children of Manuel van West and Klara Wurms. He was born on 18 January 1885 and he became a tailor by profession. Five of the nine children passed already before the war; the other four were killed in the Shoah.
Joseph van West married on 8 November 1906 in Amsterdam Gracia van Aron Rodrigues Pereira, the youngest of the three daughters of Aron van David Rodrigues Pereira and Rachel Isaac Jessurun Cardozo. There has been a little brother David too, but he died already in 1883 as a baby of 9 months old. Joseph and Gracia had three children together, namely Emanuel, who always was known as Willem, Aron who was called Ab and Klara. They were killed during the Shoah, just as their parents.
After Joseph and Gracia were wed, they moved into a house in among others the Nieuwe Kerksrtaat, but moved still several times, such as in the Nieuwe Kerkstraat itself, but also to Lepelstraat and in the years of 192o to Blasiusstraat, to Dani Theronstraat and Uithoornstraat. On 4 December they moved again, the last time, yet to Holendrechtstraat 46 1st floor in Amsterdam-South, which was also their last known address in Amsterdam.\
On 25 February 1943 Joseph van West and Gracia Rodrigues Pereira were carried off via the Hollandsche Schouwburg to Westerbork, where they ended up in barrack 61. Immediate efforts were made to escape deportation, whereby the following note was made on the registration card of Joseph van West on 1 March 1943: “The person concerned has been presented a photocopy of Messrs. Van den Brul regarding work as a tailor plus ANDB statement for the wife. Man is working in dressmaking Wbk, but spouses are not exempted from deportation due to age. Barrack 61 on 27 Febr.”
The consequence of this was that Joseph and Gracia already the next day, on 2 March 1943 were deported with the first transport from Westerbork to Sobibor with over 1100 other victims, not in cattle wagons but still in passenger wagons and upon arrival there on 5 March 1943, all were immediately killed in the gas chambers, including Joseph van West and Gracia Rodrigues Pereira.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Joseph van West, archive cards of Joseph van West and Gracia Rodrigues Pereira; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Joseph van West and Gracia Rodrigues Pereira and the Wikipedia list of jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.