Joseph van West, son of Hartog van West and Bloeme van West, was born on 27 August 1896 at Valkenburgerstraat 184 in Amsterdam. He became a diamond worker, specialized in brilliant cuts. In January 1922 Joseph left for Antwerp; he lived there at Provinciestraat 72 and worked as a diamond polisher at one of the many diamond polishing factories in the city. In April 1923 he returned to Amsterdam, where he lived until his marriage with his parents, who now lived at Blasiusstraat 121.
Joseph married Lea Kat on 1 August 1929, a daughter of Levie Kat and Naatje Bril and she was born on 24 August 1903 in Amsterdam. After the marriage was concluded, they moved into a house at President Brandtstraat 16, but in July 1934 they moved to Reitzstraat 33. Soon after, they moved again, in 1935 to Blasiusstraat 102 and in 1936 to house number 98. Joseph and Lea had three children: Bloeme on 30 July 1932, Louis on 15 October 1934 and Vogelina on 4 April 1936.
During the large-scale raids at the beginning of October 1942, Joseph van West was arrested and taken to Westerbork, where he was brought-in between 3 and 5 October. Partly due to the liquidation of all Jewish labor camps in the Northern Netherlands, as a result of which all Jewish forced laborers were also taken to Westerbork, it was a great chaos there. On 19 October, Joseph was deported to Auschwitz, where he was selected upon arrival to perform "labor".
It is not known where Joseph van West ended up and what work he had to do there. The Dutch authorities therefore determined after the war, partly on the basis of testimonies of survivors and research, that Joseph van West could no longer be alive after 28 February 1943. The municipality of Amsterdam was then instructed to draw up a death certificate for him, which states that Joseph van West died on 28 February 1943 in Auschwitz.
Joseph's wife, Lea Kat, got a job as a home caretaker on behalf of the Jewish Council, which also provisionally exempted her three children and herself from deportation. But she did not have an official Sperre. She and her children were arrested in mid-January 1943 and taken to Westerbork via the Hollandsche Schouwburg. According to her registration card, Lea then ended up in barrack 36 and possibly her children as well. Notes on her card indicate that she was placed on the so-called V-list on 25 January (the Veteran List - Palestine Veterans), but that wasn't of much help.
On 29 January 1943, Lea van West-Kat and her children Bloeme, Louis and Vogelina were deported to Auschwitz and upon arrival on 1 February 1943, they were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family registration cards of Bloeme van West and Joseph van West, archive cards of Joseph van West and Lea Kat; the Amsterdam birth certificate of Joseph van West; the Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp no.168659 images 892-896; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Joseph van West, Lea van West-Kat and Bloeme, Louis and Vogelina van West; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten uit Nederland.nl and the death certificate for Joseph van West, no. 90 dated 24 November 1950 from the A-register 59-folio 16verso, drawn up in Amsterdam.