Meijer van Geldere, the second youngest and twelfth child of Saul van Geldere and Sientje Fransman, was born in Amsterdam on 15 March 1903. He married 13 December 1928 Vrouwtje Ketellapper, a daughter of Salomon Ketellapper and Judith Sweijd and was born on 23 May 1903, also in Amsterdam. The couple had two children, namely Salomon on 13 October 1929 and on 20 January 1932 their daughter Sientje was born. Meijer was a tailor by profession.
Already since 7 February 1923 Meijer van Geldere lived in with his brother-in-law Salomon Poppegaai in the Jacob van Campenstraat 35 1st floor. Also his elder brother Gerrit Poppegooi came living in there with his wife Magdalena van Geldere in July 1925. Benjamin van Geldere, brother of Meijer, appeared to have lived in also there as a brother-in-law of Gerrit and his brother Salomon Poppegaai. And after Meijer van Geldere was married in December 1928 to Vrouwtje Ketellapper, she too moved in there, albeit only for a few days.
So a few days later, on 17 December 1928, Meijer van Geldere and his newlywed wife Vrouwtje Ketellapper moved to Rustenburgerdwarsstraat 16 groundfloor but in 1930 they moved into a house in the Hofmeyerstraat 18 groundfloor and August 1936 a house in the Swammerdamstraat 49 1st floor.
On 18 July 1942 all members of the family of Meijer van Geldere were called up to report in Westerbork for the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz” – the provision of additional work in Germany. One week later, on Friday 24 July, in a transport of 1000 deportees in total, the entire family was deported to Auschwitz. On arrival there on 26 July 1943, Vrouwtje van Geldere-Ketellapper and both her children, the 12-year old Salomon and the 10-year old Sientje, were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
However, upon arrival that 26th of July at the Rampe, the platform, Meijer van Geldere was selected as a forced labourer. Not known where he ended up but the circumstances there were inhumane, barbaric and tirannic. Meijer lasted another 9 weeks but then he still succumbed to the hardship there. From the “Standesambt Auschwitz”- the Registry of Auschwitz, a message was received in the Netherlands (listing 19-C) that Meijer van Geldere has died on 22 September 1942, due to hydrocardia, as was recorded in the “Sterbebücher” – the death records of Auschwitz.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Meijer van Geldere, archive cards of Meijer van Geldere and Vrouwtje Ketellapper; the Amsterdam residence card of the Jacob van Campenstraat 35; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Meijer van Geldere, Vrouwtje van Geldere-Ketellapper, Salomon and Sientje van Geldere; website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the death certificate for Meijer van Geldere of 22 September 1942, made out in Amsterdam, register 3v47-folio53verso.