Marcus Boas was the 2nd of the five children of brushmaker Boas Boas and Rachel Mechanicus, of whom two sibs have died even before their third year. Marcus was born on 16 February 1893 at Lepelstraat 69 in Amsterdam. He he had a younger brother Benjamin and a younger sister Grietje.
His father, Boas Boas, was not only a brush maker, but also a diamond cutter and travelled regularly to Antwerp with his family. He usually stayed there for a few years before returning to Amsterdam. During one such stay in Antwerp, Marcus's mother Rachel Mechanicus died there on 1 April 1904, after which his father remarried Alexandrina van West on 17 August of that year in Amsterdam. She was born on 1 February 1862 in Amsterdam as daughter of Levie Abraham van West and Judic Barend Visser.
A day after the marriage, Marcus' 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 found accommodation at Valkenburgerstraat 178 with Alexandrina's cousin Margaretha van West , who was married to Nachman Schouten.
In 1910 the family left without Grietje for Berchem, Krijtstraat 8, where they stayed for 4 years. Then in 1914 they returned to Valkenburgerstraat 178 in Amsterdam. Marcus had meanwhile become a brilliant adjuster and Benjamin had become a brilliant polisher and both brothers left for Borgerhout on 22 May 1915, address Boschheidestraat 12. Benjamin already returned to Amsterdam on 10 June 1915, but Marcus still remained in Belgium.
In September 1916, Marcus returned in Amsterdam and lived in again with his father Boas and stepmother Alexandrina. On 19 June 1918 he married Johanna Knegje, a daughter of Levie Knegje and Roosje Flesschedrager, who was born in Amsterdam on 16 February 1899
After the marriage of Marcus and Johanna was conclude4d, they still remained living in with Johanna’s parents in the underhouse of Rapenburgerstraat 130 in Amsterdam. There their first child was nborn on 11 September 1918 and they named him Barend.
A few years later they returned to Belgium with their son Barend and found accommodation in Borgerhout, where their second son Ludovicus was born on 7 August 1924. Later the family moved to Deurne where they lived until the beginning of May 1934 and then returned to Amsterdam where they found lodging with the widow of Elias Spreekmeester at Ben Viljoenstraat 22, where also the widow and second wife of his father Boas, Alexandrina Boas -van West lived.
Soon after, on 18 May 1934, Marcus and his family left again, this time to Reitzstraat 21, after which five more relocations followed between May 1934 and August 1939. Their las known address in Amsterdam was per 25 August 1939 Govert Flinckstraat 309 2nd floor.
Their son Barend had meanwhile been married on 1 November 1939 in Amsterdam to Anna de Haas, born on 8 July 1918 in Amsterdam as the daughter of Jacob de Haas and Betsy Franschman. They survived the Holocaust and emigrated to Canada in 1957, where Barend passed away on 15 December 1987 in Richmond, British Columbia in Canada and his wife Anna died there in 2006.
Marcus Boas, his wife Johanna Knegje and Ludovicus Boas were not so lucky. During the major raids at the beginning of October 1942, they were arrested and carried off to Westerbork where they arrived somewhere between 3 and 5 October and where they had to await their deportation in a great chaos. This chaos was caused by the simultaneous liquidation of all Jewish labor camps in the Northern Netherlands, with all forced laborers also being taken to Westerbork for further deportation to the "East".
Marcus, Johanna and Ludovicus were deported to Auschwitz on 30 October 1942, with a stopover in Cosel, a place ± 80 km west of Auschwitz, where 200 boys and men between the ages of 15 and 50 were forced to leave the train to be put to work as forced laborers in the surrounding labor camps of Upper Silesia. Most probably Marcus (49 years old) and Ludovicus (18 years old) belonged to this group.
Those, who remained in the train, were transported further to Auschwitz, among them also Johanna Boas-Knegje, who has been murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau immediately upon arrival there on 2 November 1942.
The further fate of Marcus Boas and his son Ludovicus is not known, in the sense that it is unknown where they ended up, what kind of forced labor they had to do and when exactly they lost their lives. After the war, the Dutch authorities determined, partly on the basis of testimonies of survivors and research, that Marcus Boas and Ludovicus Boas could no longer be alive after 31 March 1944. The municipality of Amsterdam was then commissioned to draw up death certificates for both, in which it is established that Marcus Boas and Ludovicus Boas died on 31 March 1944 in Central Europe. Sources include the City
Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Marcus Boas, archive cards of Marcus Boas, Johanna Knegje, Ludovicus Bos, Barend Boas and Anna de Haas; certificate of birth 1894 of Marcus Boas 1893, certificate of birth of Barendf Boas nr. 10303 from 1918; Amsterdam residence cards of Danie Theronstraat 223, Rapenburgerstraat 130, Ben Viljoenstraat 22; Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Anwerp, nr. 107845 image 263-282; website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl/transport 30 October 1942 and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Marcus Boas, Johanna Boas-Knegje, Ludovicus Boas, Barend Boas and Anna Boas-de Haas.