Hartog Joseph Pos was born on 16 August 1884 in Paramaribo (Surinam) as son of Joseph Hendrik Pos and Jansje van West. He had a brother, Samuel Joseph, who was a dentist, just like he himself. Hartog Joseph Pos arrived from Paramaribo in Amsterdam as a student on 15 July 1903 and stayed in House Vas Nunez at Nieuwe Herengracht 87. On 24 November 1908 he has been officially unsubscribed to Surinam, from where he returned again in 1910 to the Netherlands, and officially was subscribed on 18 October 1910 at Grote Oost 2 in Hoorn, province of Noord Holland.
Hartog Joseph Pos married 14 July 1913 in Winterswijk Martha Elzas, who was born there 27 March 1890 as a daughter of Jacob Elzas and Sophie Serphos. After the wedding, they both came back to Hoorn, where on 14 January 1914 their son Herman was born, who eventually survived the Holocaust.
Between 18 December 1913 and 26 February 1914, his brother Samuel Joseph Pos lived in with them in Hoorn. He left then for Alkmaar where he stayed for more than two years and moved then to Den Haag. From there, he has been deported to Auschwitz in 1942 and killed there.
From Hoorn, the Hartog Joseph Pos family has moved at some point to Bussum, where they resided in the Graaf Wichmanlaan 37. (their son Herman was registered in Bussum in 1934 for the military service). However, forced removals for Jews from the province to Amsterdam during the war, caused on 22 January 1943 that the family came down for a few months in the Sloestraat 13 1st floor in Amsterdam and on 6 May 1943 in the Paardekraalstraat 6 in the Transvaal District of Amsterdam-East.
From the registration card of Hartog Joseph Pos from the file cabinet of the Jewish Council is to deduct that up from the establishment he was a dentist at the Medical Department of the Jewish Council in the Lomanstraat 65 parterre, where his cousin and dentist Hartog Simon Pos had his practice from 30 May 1938. Hartog Joseph Pos therefore had an I.D. with number 125 from the Jewish Council. His wife Martha, was a pharmacy assistant and both had a exemption stamp from the Jewish Council with the nrs. 90055 and 90056, so they were exempted from deportation for the time being.
However, on 26 May 1943 Hartog Joseph Pos and his wife Martha Elzas were arrested and carried off to Westerbork, where they ended up in barrack 58. On 1 June they were both put on transport to Sobibor with more than 3000 other deportees. From this transport there was only one survivor: Jules Schelvis. All the others, among them also Hartog Joseph Pos and Martha Elzas were immediately killed in the gas chambers there on arrival on 4 June 1943.
Sources include website Open Archieven.nl/Westfries Archief/Hartog Joseph Pos-Martha Elzas-Herman Pos; wedding certificate from Winterswijk nr. 62 dated 14 July 1913 for Hartog Joseph Pos and Martha Elzas; City Archive of Amsterdam/Overgenomen Delen/done family registration cards/Hartog Joseph Pos, archive card Hartog Joseph Pos, residence cards of Amsterdam/Sloestraat 13 and Paardekraalstraat 6; “Ondergang” volumel I by Dr. J Presser, page. 287/stamps and exemptions; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Hartog Joseph Pos en Martha Pos-Elzas and the website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.