Bernard Barend was the youngest of the twelve children of Gerrit Barend and Heintje Visser. He was born in Amsterdam on 6 January 1916, remained unmarried and worked as a warehouse clerk but later he became a designer of ladies fashion hats. Bernard lived at home with his father; his mother passed away already in 1934. His father afterwards moved in 1935 to the Louis Bothastraat and in December to the President Brandstraat 11 1st floor in the Transvaal district of Amsterdam-East.
Bernard then still lived at home with his father Gerrit Barend, but also Gerrit's daughter Lena, who got married in 1940 to Joseph Polak, came living in on 14 January 1941. When Bernard's father moved to house nr. 56 2nd floor in the President Brandstraat at the end of August 1941, Bernard left his parental home and moved with Lena and her husband Joseph Polak into a house in the Swammerdamstraat 7 2nd floor.
Most likely, Bernard Barend has responded to the call for the so-called “provision of additional work in Germany”, the “Arbeitseinsatz”. On 12 July 1942 Bernard has reported already in Westerbork and on 15 July 1942 he departed with the first transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz, together with another 1135 deportees.
On arrival at the “Rampe” - the platform of Auschwitz-Birkenau - on 17 or 18 July 1942, Bernard was selected as a forced labourer and has been put to work in- or outside the camp, which is unkown. The working conditions were terrible and inhumane and Bernard died there at some point but the exact data is also unknown.
It was therefore that the Dutch Ministry of Justice after the war has ordered the Municipality of Amsterdam to draw up a certificate of death for Bernard Barend, in which was established that he has died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Gerrit Barend, archive card of Bernard Barend; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Bernard Barend; the certificate of death made out in Amsterdam from the A-register 46-folio 46v, deed nr. 266 dated 18 August 1950 and the Wikipedia listing of jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl