Joël van Tijn, born in Utrecht on 25 January 1908, son of Izaak van Tijn and Saartje van Meer, lived in January 1930 with his parents and brothers in the Kuipersstraat in Amsterdam. They came from Magdalenastraat 1 in Utrecht to Amsterdam, where father Izaak had been attendant of the Israelitic Orphanage.
Joël was not married but did have a child that survived the war. (An addition from a visitor to the website).
On 14 December 1932, Joël was admitted to the Central Israelite Insane Asylum "Het Apeldoornsche Bosch", where he stayed until 14 September 1934. After he was discharged from there, he left for Kapteynstraat 107 in Hilversum, where his parents had already moved in July 1934.
A year later, on 15 July 1935, Joël van Tijn was again admitted to the Apeldoornsche Bosch, where he stayed until 7 December 1936. Afterwards, he returned to his parental address in Hilversum.
At the beginning of October 1942, when Joël lived in Utrecht, he was arrested and taken to Westerbork between 3 and 5 October 1942. However, the details of his registration card from the Jewish Council show that he was discharged there on 15 October 1942, and that he was readmitted to Apeldoornsche Bosch on that same date.
Presumably before the Germans evacuated the institution on 22/23 January 1943, Joël was already back again in Utrecht, where he lived at Oude Gracht 411. On 7 October 1943, however, Joël was arrested again and taken to Westerbork, where he stayed in barrack 63, awaiting his deportation to “the East”.
On 19 October 1943, Joël was added to the transport, which arrived in Westerbok from Vught the day before, and departed from there with 1007 deportees to Auschwitz. The deportation train arrived there on 21/22 October 1943 where Joël was selected on arrival as a still fit worker.
Joël van Tijn was among the approximately 350 selected men who were found suitable for work. After four weeks of “quarantine”, this group was partly sent to the destroyed Warsaw ghetto to clear debris there; a smaller part ended up at the Jawischowitz coal mines. Nothing was heard from the women, children and "others" after arrival. Many were gassed immediately upon arrival.
It is not known where Joël van Tijn ended up, in Warsaw or Jawischowitz, nor where and when exactly he lost his life. After the war, the Dutch authorities determined, partly based on research by the Red Cross and witness statements from survivors, that Joël van Tijn could no longer be alive after 31 March 1944, nor where he died. The municipality of Utrecht was then instructed to draw up a death certificate for Joël van Tijn, which states that he died on 31 March 1944 (somewhere) in Poland.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, Izaak van Tijn family registration cards; the Utrecht Archive/family registration cards Izaak van Tijn; Coda archive Apeldoorn/population register with Joël van Tijn; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Joël van Tijn; Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl; the publication Dutch Red Cross from October 1953/Auschwitz volume 4 and the death certificate 2206, drawn up in Utrecht on 26 October 1951 for Joël van Tijn.