Josephina Roos was a daughter of Isaac Roos and his second wife Elisabeth Ossedrijver and was born on 18 August 1882 in Rotterdam. Josephina was the youngest of the 13 children of Isaac Roos, who was first married to Sara Blok, a daughter of David Blok and Esther Herts, with whom he had 6 children. Sara Blok died on 6 February 1870 in Rotterdam, after which Isaac Roos remarried on 7 September of that year to Elisabeth Ossedrijver from Nijmegen, a daughter of Jonas Joseph Ossedrijver and Rosette Godschalk. Isaac had 7 more children with Elisabeth.
Isaac Roos was a broker and commission agent; he died in Rotterdam at the age of 57 on 2 January 1884 and was interred at the Jewish Cemetery in the Dijkstraat in Rotterdam. Two years later, in May 1886, the widowed Elisabeth Roos-Ossedrijver moved from Rotterdam to Amsterdam, where she came to live at Stadhouderskade 124 with four of her own children, including Josephina.
Josephina Roos married the merchant Abraham van den Bergh, who was usually called André, on 19 July 1910 in Amsterdam. He was a son of David van den Bergh and Kaatje Allemans, born in Dordrecht on 8 January 1882 and lived in Antwerp.
Almost immediately after they got married, the young couple left for Antwerp, where they lived at Van Dijkstraat 60 until March 1915. Then they moved to Vorst, located in the metropolitan area of Brussels, where they stayed for over a year. From May 1916 they lived again in the Netherlands, at Mecklenburglaan 86 in Bussum. They moved again, this time to the Koningin Emmalaan 5a in Bussum, where Abraham van den Bergh (André) died on 14 October 1935 and was interred in de Jewish Cemetery in Bussum.
Josephina van den Bergh-Roos, now widowed, subsequently lived in Naarden at the Godelindeweg 42 and the Prins Willem van Oranjelaan 21, before she ended up at the Gelderschekade 80 in Amsterdam, due to the mandatory “concentration of provincial Jews in Amsterdam. However, her last known address appeared to be Scheldeplein 16, from where she was taken on 16 September 1942 and carried off via the Hollandsche Schouwburt to Westerbork (source: transport list Amsterdam-Westerbork 15/16 September 1942, page 10).
On 25 September 1942, Josephina van den Bergh-Roos has been deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz and upon arrival on 28 September 1942, she was immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the Rotterdam City Archives, birth certificate Josephina Roos; the Amsterdam City Archives, Overgenomen delen (ready and closed family registration cards)/archive no. 5416 inventory 209 Period 1930; Amsterdam Population Register 1874-1893/Stadhouderskade 124; Marriage certificate 487 Van den Bergh/Roos made up in Amsterdam; the Dossier of Foreigners of the City of Antwerp file 117135/images 7 to 10; website openarchieven.nl/death certificate 208 made up in Bussum for Abraham van den Bergh; Book “Ondergang” volume I by Dr. J.Presser/ p. 203 ff.- the beginning of the evacuations to Amsterdam, published 1965; Amsterdam residence cards Geldersekade 80 and Scheldeplein 16; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Josephine van den Bergh-Roos; the archive of the Red Cross/transport list 15/16 September 1942 Amsterdam-Westerbork and the death certificate made up in Bussum for Josephina Roos, no. 176 dated 29 November 1950.