Joseph van Hesse was the only son of Samson van Hesse and Hendrika David, born on 22 December 1912 in Rotterdam. He married on 6 November 1935 Anna Cauveren, who was born on 18 May 1913 in Amsterdam as daughter of Salomon Cauveren and Esther Salomons and on 29 May 1936, their daughter Elisabeth was born.
Joseph van Hesse was a commercial traveller but earned also his money as a wholesaler of rubber and related articles. He had an education as shorthand/typist, bookkeeping and in technics of the rubber trade, had his Mercurius Diploma accountancy and diploma’s modern languages. But on 10 February 1936 Joseph also appealed to the predecessor of Social Affairs, Social Assistance in Rotterdam, where a few months later his first child would be born.
After Joseph and Anna were wed, they lived in the Van Maanenstraat 5b in Rotterdam, a side street of the Statenweg, in 1936 in the Meermanstraat 69 and since 29 April 1937 in the Van der Dussenstraat 15b in Rotterdam.
Since 29 July 1942, Joseph van Hesse was exempted from deportation because of function at the Jewish Council. A note at his registration card from the Jewish Council show that 170 persons were exempted “because of function” in Rotterdam. Also Joseph had a “Sperre” issued by the Jewish Council of Amsterdam, department Rotterdam with nr. 652 for “shoe repair and provisions or services”. Also his wife and daughter were exempted from deportation for the time being and in October 1942, they still lived in the Van der Dussenstraat 15b in Rotterdam.
The Rotterdam police however cancelled their Sperre numbers 8/87132 and 8/87133 and Joseph had been still arrested on 20 October 1942. But the Jewish Council indicated that Joseph was indeed exempted, on the basis of which he was released again and was able to report that “he would come home next evening”, like a note on his registration card reads. The family would have been carried off to Westerbork on 26 October 1942 but again apparently exempted from deportation.
Subsequently, the Van Hesse family moved at some point from the Van der Dussenstraat in Rotterdam to Eemsstraat 44 1st floor in Amsterdam, where Joseph had this job with the Jewish Council as an employee administration in the department of education up from 8 January 1943. Also his wife and daughter were again exempted from deportation for the time being. For the removal from Rotterdam to Amsterdam, a permit was required, which had to be requested through the Jewish Council, however, this permit is not findable anymore in the archives.
In the end it didn’t work out at all; Joseph, his wife and daughter were arrested again and carried off to concentration camp Vught in the night of 8/9 April 1943. His daughter Elisabeth, together with her mother Anna van Hesse-Cauveren, were deported via Westerbork to Sobibor with the so-called children transport in the night of 6/7 June 1943 where on arrival there on 11 June 1943 they both were immediately killed in the gas chambers of Sobibor.
Joseph van Hesse was taken from Vught to Westerbork one month later, on 3 July 1943, where he ended up for unknown reasons in the penal barrack 66. On 6 July he too was put on transport to Sobibor and on arrival there on 9 July 1943 immediately killed in the gas chambers there too.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of Joseph van Hesse and Salomon Cauveren; wedding certificate Van Hesse/Cauveren from Rotterdam, nr. 1935.4380-folio 139; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Joseph van Hesse, Anna van Hesse-Cauveren and Elisabeth van Hesse; Municipal listings Rotterdam1942 /van Hesse/Van der Dussenstraat 15b; website ITS Arolson/registration card Vught of Joseph van Hesse; website oorlogslevens.nl/arrests of Joseph van Hesse, Anna van Hesse-Cauveren and Elisabeth van Hesse;additions of visitors of the website of among others mr. Harry de Boeck and Mr. Raymund Schütz.