Joseph Brandon was a son of Isaak Jacob Brandon and Rosa Groenewout and was born in Amsterdam on 13 July 1878. On 12 July 1899 he married Klaartje Roe in Amsterdam; she was born in Amsterdam on 8 August 1877 as a daughter of Joseph Roe and Esther Spreekmeester. The Brandon-Roe couple had four children, namely: Isidore in 1900, Estella in 1902, Jacob in 1905 and Margaretha in 1907.
After Joseph and Klaartje were married, they moved into a house at Blasiusstraat 114 in Amsterdam East, where their first child Isidore was born. In October 1901 the family moved to Houtkopersburgwal 16, where the children Estella, Jacob and Margaretha were born. Several more moves followed, but the last known address of Joseph and Klaartje was Henriette Ronnerplein 8 2nd floor in Amsterdam-Zouth, where they moved into a house in June 1931.
Joseph Brandon earned his living as a diamond polisher and he became a member of the ANDB, the General Dutch Diamond Workers' Union, on 8 January 1899 and was admitted to section 5, rose polishers. In the few years that followed, Joseph was both expelled from membership due to a debt and readmitted on 22 August 1900; resigned as a member again but was admitted again as a new member on 6 December 1902, on the condition that he signed a contract to pay off his debt of Fl. 43.--. He finally resigned on 5 December 1940 due to unemployment.
The children of Joseph and Klaartje, Isidore, Estella and Jacob, were married in the years between 1920 and 1930 and lived at their own addresses. Isidore lived with his wife Eva Breemer and son Salomon at Waverstraat 70 2nd level; Estella lived with her husband David de Bock above her parents at Henriette Ronnerplein 10 2nd floor and Jacob with his wife Klara Gans and daughter Sonna at Jekerstraat 14 2nd floor. However, their daughter Margaretha lived at home with her parents; she was unmarried.
In the afternoon of 24 February 1944, Joseph Brandon and Klaartje Roe were arrested at Henriette Ronnerplein 6, 1st floor, and “made available” to room 19 on the Adema van Scheltemaplein, the SD. It is not clear whether Joseph and Klaartje were "visiting" on the 1st floor of Henriette Ronnerplein 6, or whether they had gone into hiding there. Available documents do not provide a definitive answer, except that they were deported to Westerbork on 9 March 1944 and locked up in penal barrack 67. It is not clear what "crime" they allegedly committed against the german occupiers.
On 23 March 1944, Joseph and Klaartje were deported to Auschwitz in a transport with 597 other victims. Three days later, upon arrival on 26 March 1944, Joseph Brandon and Klaartje Roe were immediately taken to the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau to be murdered there.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family registration card of Joseph Brandon, archive cards of Joseph Brandon and Klaartje Roe, police reports 40-45/24 Feb 1944 with Joseph Brandon and Klaartje Roe; website Joods Amsterdam.nl/Adema van Scheltemaplein and Euterpestraat; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Joseph Brandon and Kaatje Brandon-Roe; the Wikipedia website Transports of Jews from Nederland.nl/23 March 1944.(Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl)