Benjamin Boas was the third of the five children of Boas Boas and Rachel Mechanicus, of whom two have died already beforte their 3rd year. He was born in Amsterdam on 4 May 1894 and had an older brother Marcus and a younger sister Grietje. Benjamin was born in the Rapenburgerstraat 41 in Amsterdam and remained unmarried.
His father, Boas Boas, was except brush maker, also diamond polisher and left regularly to Antwerp with his family. There he stayed mostly a few years, to return again to Amsterdam. During one of those stays in Belgium, Benjamin’s mother Rachel Mechanicus passed away on 1 Aplril 1904 in Antwerp, after which his father remarried Alexandrina van West in Amsterdam on 17 August of that year. Alexandrina was born on 1 February 1862in Amsterdam as a daughter of Levie Abraham van West and Judic Baren Visser.
A day after the marriage, Benjamin's father left with Alexandrina and his children on 18 August 1904 for Borgerhout, where he stayed for another 2 years, but returned to Amsterdam in September 1906, where they could then live with Alexandrina's cousin Margaretha van West, who was married with Nachman Schouten and who lived in the Valkenburgerstraat at no. 178.
Without Grietje, the family left in 1910 the family left for Berchem, Krijtstraat 8 without Grietje, where they stayed for 4 years. Then in 1914 they returned to Valkenburgerstraat 178 in Amsterdam. Meanwhile Marcus had become a brilliant adjuster and Benjamin a brilliant polisher and both left on 22 May 1915 for Borgerhout, address Boschheidestraat 12. But a few weeks later, on 10 June 1915, Benjamin returned to the Valkenburgerstraat in Amsterdam, and a few months later, on 8 November of that year, he was registered at the address Rapenburgerstraat 56 with the widow of Gerrit Waas, Leentje Pinto, where he independently rented a room.
In the end of November 19232, Benjamin left again for Antwerp, where he stayed until mid December 1934 at Karel Palmsstraat 26 of the sub-municipality of Deurne, but then moved to the Concience street 53 in the Klein Antwerpen district, to sell his merchandise from there, house to house as a pedlar.
The Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp shows that Benjamin Boas, residing at Conciencestraat 53, was requested on 16 April 1936 to report within 8 days with his identity card and the aforementioned invitation at the City Hall in Antwerp. Whereupon 17 April 1936 the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Antwerp reported that the person concerned has been imprisoned in Tournai for 10 years. (A reason for his imprisonment is not apparent from the documents at hand).
On July 28, 1936, a so-called order of the day appeared, the content of which read: The Commission of the Psychiatric Department of the Prison here has decided in its meeting of 23-7-1936 that the named BOAS, Benjamin, born Amsterdam 16-8-1894 within 3 days will leave the country to go to the Netherlands, with the undertaking not to return to Belgium without permission from the Commission. The internee will be released on Monday 27 December.
According to a “Notice of Departure of a Stranger” from the City of Antwerp, Benjamin Boas was deleted from the population register of Antwerp on 23 July 1936, with the new address Ben Viljoenstraat 20 Amsterdam indicated. At the beginning of August his registration in the Amsterdam Population Register appears to be at Joubertstraat 25 and from there he moved on 1 April 1937 to a room with Jacob Troeder at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 64 2nd floor, from where he was admitted to the Central Israelite Psychiatric Institution The Apeldoornse Bos on 27 April 1938.
All patients and employees of Het Apeldoornse Bos, including the 48-year-old Benjamin Boas, were deported to Auschwitz in the night of 21 to 22 January 1943, where all were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau upon arrival on 25 January 1943.
Sources include the Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp no.107845-image 263-282; the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Boas Boas and Benjamin Boas, archive card of Benjamin Boas, birth certificate 4822 dated 7 May 1894 from register 6-folio 2v of Benjamin Boas; Amsterdam residence cards as Rapenburgerstraat 556, Joubertstraat 25 and Nieuwe Keizersgracht 64 2nd floor; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Benjamin Boas and the website Joods Amsterdam/Nieuwe Keizersgracht 64.