Willem Muijs was the youngest son of Samuel Muijs and Sara Stokvisch. He was born on 16 November 1915 in Amsterdam and he started his working life as a butcher's assistant. On 8 June 1938 he married Hendrika Smeer in Amsterdam, a daughter of Salomon Smeer and Marietje Roeg.
From July 1937, Willem no longer lived at home but found a place to live with "uncle" Levie Rijksman at Rapenburgerstraat 58 ground floor, who was married to the aunt of his wife Hendrika, Heintje Smeer. However, after Willem married Hendrika, both were registered on 10 June 1938 at the address Blasiusstraat 106 3rd floor in Amsterdam-East. Their two children were also born there: Levie on 8 September 1938 and Marietje Sara on 28 March 1940.
Notes on the Jewish Council registration card of Willem Muijs show that he was a soldier in the Dutch Army. After the capitulation on 15 Mey 1940, all soldiers were given the status of prisoners of war, but a few weeks later a “Führer Dekret” determined that the Dutch Army had been released from captivity. In July 1940 the army was demobilized and conscripts returned to civilian society.
Presumably afterwards, Willem Muijs was put to work in one of the State labor camps in the Northern Netherlands, but it is not known in which camp he stayed nor from when to when. In the meantime, the entire family was already mandatory registered with the Jewish Council in Amsterdam in 1941, with the annotation “MIL” (Militairy) on their registration cards.
In July 1942, the Jewish Council proposed a number of categories of Jews for a “setback or postponement”, including former soldiers such as the soldiers who had foughgt for the fatherland in the May days of 1940. This initially led to actual setback from deportation but already rather soon not anymore.
On 17 July 1942, Willem Muijs and his family were indeed “setted back - postponed from “Arbeitseinsatz and deportation”, for which they had been called up. But on Monday 24 August 1942, still deportation to Auschwitz followed. After arriving there, Hendrika Muijs-Smeer and her children Levie and Marietje Sara were murdered immediately in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau on 26 August 1942.
Willem Muijs, on the other hand, was selected for employent in the camp upon arrival, although it is not known where Willem ended up and when and how exactly he died there. He must have quickly experienced that the condtions there were harsh, difficult and inhumane.
After the war, the Dutch Authorities determined, partly based on investigations by the Red Cross, that Willem Muijs no longer could be alive after 30 September 1942. The Municipality of Amsterdam then was instructed to draw up a death certificate for him, stating that he has died in Auschwitz on 30 Septenber 1942.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Willem Muijs; archive cards of Willem Muijs, Hendrika Smeer and Levie and Marietje Sara Muijs; Amsterdam residence card Rapenburgerstraat 58 huis/Levie Rijksman and Willem Muijs; the file cabinet of the Jewisch Council, registration cards of Willem Muijs, Hendrika Muijs-Smeer, Levie Muijs and Marietje Sara Muijs; Website NOS/krijgsgevangenen (prisoners of war); the Wikipedia website Joden Transporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the certificate of death nr, 531 for Willem Muijs from the A-register 46-folio 90-verso – made out by the Municipality of Amsterdam on 18 August 1950.