Bertha was the daughter of Meijer de Groot and Ida Wijnberg. Her first marriage with Gerrit Helmus van der Veen was dissolved in Middelburg in 1907. Ten years later, at the age of fifty, Bertha married again. Her second husband was Pieter Coenraad van der Kuijp, a Holland America Line (HAL) steward. He died in 1926.
Bertha initially worked as a shop saleswoman, and later as a trader. As a widow and a trader, she travelled from Rotterdam to Tilburg and then to other towns, ending up in 's-Hertogenbosch. On 21 August 1942 she was admitted to the Centraal Israëlitisch Oude Mannen- en Vrouwenhuis [a Jewish home for the elderly] in Gouda. She remained there until it was evacuated on 9 April 1943.
The official report on the evacuation of the more than 60 residents of the home has been preserved in the Streekarchief Midden Holland [a regional archive in Gouda]. The name of Bertha de Groot is one of those inscribed on the plaque in the Metaher house behind the premises of Oosthaven 31, Gouda.
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