Gerrit Barend was a son of Abraham Barend and Rebekka Cartoef. He was born on 4 November 1872 in Amsterdam and he was a peddlar but also a diamondworker and diamond-rose cutter. On 15 August 1894 he married Heintje Visser in Amsterdam, a daughter of Barend Visser and Sientje Abraham Berkhof. She was born in Amsterdam on 26 May 1870.
Gerrit and Heintje had twelve children alltogether. However Bloeme and Abraham died as babies and Klara died nearly 6 years old. Eva and Mietje survived the Holocaust but Rebecca, Barend, Elisabeth, Abraham, Lena, Marianna with their families and the unmarried Bernard were all killed during the Shoah.
After Gerrit and Heintje were married in 1894, they lived at Batavierstraat 89 but already a few months later moved to Joden Houttuinen 24. Subsequently the Gerrit Barend family moved into sixteen different homes between 1895 and 1935, including seven different houses at Joden Houttuinen and addresses at Houtkopersburgwal and Nieuwe Keizersgracht. Since June 1927 the family lived at several addresses in Amsterdam-East, like the Dani Theronstraat and the Retiefstraat. On 8 January 1932 they lived at President Brandstraat 15 2nd floor in the Transvaal District of Amsterdam-East.
When Gerrit became a widower on 20 April 1934 - his wife Heintje passed away at the age of 63 years – he moved to Louis Bothastraat on 22 February 1935 and on 9 December of that year to President Brandstraat 11 1st floor. His unmarried son Bernard then still lived at home with his father but also his daughter Lena, who married in 1940 Joseph Polak, also came to live with her father on 14 January 1941.
When Gerrit Barend moved on 30 August 1941 to house nr. 56 2nd floor in the same street, his children Bernard and Lena and her husband Joseph Polak then left for Swammerdamstraat 7 2nd floor. Just one move followed on 26 February 1942 when Gerrit Barend came to live at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 110. At that address, the Secretariat of the Dutch Israëlitic Public Assistance Committee (Nederlands Israëlitisch Armbestuur) was located and the address belonged also to the Dutch Israëlitic Hospital (Nederlands Israëlitisch Ziekenhuis).
On 4 March 1943 Gerrit Barend was carried off from his last address to Westerbork, where he ended up for unknown reasons in the penal barrack 67. On 10 March Gerrit was deported to Sobibor and on arrival there on 13 March 1943 immediately killed in the gas chambers there.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards and archive card of Gerrit Barend; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Gerrit Barend and the website Erfgoed Joods Amsterdam (Heritage Jewish Amsterdam)/Nieuwe Keizersgracht 110.