Joseph Blik, 'Jopie', was born in Amsterdam on 19 March 1926, the only child of Meijer Blik and Judith van Beetz. In November 1939 the family moved to Haarlem, where his mother ran a ladies' fashion shop on Houtplein. From 8 May 1942 the family was registered at Caninefatenstraat 54, where his mother's brother also lived with his family. Joseph learned the trade of furrier.
In 1943 his parents fled to Belgium and lived there on false papers. Joseph stayed with an uncle in Amsterdam for some time and left for Brussels too on 13 April 1943, where he lived under the name Pierre Sergeant. On 3 August 1944, a month before Brussels was liberated, he was arrested. On 31 August he was put on a transport to Germany and on 16 September 1944 he arrived in Mauthausen. There he had to do three months of forced labour in the underground aircraft factory Bergkristall. He died of exhaustion and illness in Mauthausen on 15 December 1944, aged 18. His parents survived the war.
