Jozef de Vries – always called Jonny - was a son of the butcher Siegmund de Vries and Rosette Marianne van Geldere. He was born on 20 March 1941 in Rotterdam and lived with his parents at the Crooswijkscheweg 161b in de district Crooswijk of Rotterdam.
His parents were married on 29 May 1940 in Rotterdam: Jonny’s mother, Rosette Marianna van Geldere was born on 3 August 1917 as a daughter of Salomon Albert van Geldere and Sara van Dam and his father, Siegmund de Vries, who was born on 8 September 1915 in Rotterdam, was a son of Jozef de Vries and Rika Goldschmidt.
Siegmund de Vries was a butcher by trade. On 28 July 1942 he obtained an exemption from deportation for himself and his wife and little son from the Jewish Council, because of his work in distribution of food for the Council. His butcher shop was classified as a so-called “Jewish Store”(Joodsch Lokaal), were, as a result of the anti-Jewish measures imposed by the Germans, only Jews were allowed to buy.
At some point in 1942 or 1943, the family decided to go into hiding and presumably Jonny was accommodated in another place than where his parents were. His parents however have survived the Holocaust by hiding and in 1946 their address was Schielaan 14 in Overschie. Jozef (Jonny) de Vries however was arrested somewhere in 1943 (presumably fall), together with is “hiding father”/foster father – possibly through treason and both were carried off to Westerbork.
In a transport of 732 deportees, the then almost 3-year old Jozef (Jonny) de Vries was deported to Auschwitz on 3 March 1944, alone, without his parents and upon arrival there on 6 March 1944 he was immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, wedding Siegmund de Vries/Rosette Marianne van Geldere; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Siegmund de Vries, Rosette Marianne de Vries-van Geldere and Jozef de Vries; the certificate of death for Jozef de Vries, made out in Rotterdam on 9 February 1952, nr 173; the Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and an addition of a visitor of the website.