Rosetta Jacoba van Gelder was a daughter from the 2nd marriage of Jacob van Gelder from Denekamp and Betjen Hemelrijk from Winterswijk. Rosetta was born on 30 June 1899 in Amsteram and she was employed there as an office clerk. Later she worked as a social worker with Pro Juventute Wijkverpleging (District Nursing).
Rosetta Jacoba had another brother, Robert Heiman, who was born on 8 February 1898 He was married to Rebecca de Souza on 22 September 1926 and per 26 September 1926 was their common address Amstelveenseweg 128 ground floor. They had two children, viz. Robinette and Berthe Marie, who both have survived the Holocaust.
Rosetta Jacoba was unmarried and stayed in Paris from October 1927 till September 1928. She was registered again in Amsterdam at the address Amstelveenseweg 128 2nd floor. Since April 1927 her parents have moved from Valckeniersstraat 43 to Amstelveenseweg 128 too but her father, Jacob van Gelder, passed away there on 16 March 1928, 69 years of age.
Except her brother Robert Heiman, Rosetta Jacoba had six half brothers and sisters from the first marriage of her father to Rosetta Hemelrijk, viz. David, Amalia, Rebecca, Barend Jacob, Helena and Sientje. Rosetta Hemelrijk, who was born on 8 June 1857 in Winterswijk, passed away already on 16 July 1896, only 39 years of age, after which her father Jacob van Gelder remarried Rosetta’s sister Betjen Hemelrijk.
After being registered at the Jewish Council, Rosetta Jacoba was “gesperrt because of function”- exempted from deportation until further notice. On 1 July 1942 she became an employee at the Jewish Council department Social Care and House Care at Lijnbaansgracht in Amsterdam Still, she has been arrested and carried off to Westerbork as a penal case where she was locked up in the penal barrack 67. She was gone into hiding but arrested during a check on the street with a false identity card and without a Jewish star. (Source: Bertie van Gelder and “The war Hitler won (De oorlog die Hitler won) by H. Wielek).
On 16 November 1943 Rosetta Jacoba van Gelder was put on transport to Auschwitz as a penal case, and upon arrival there on 19 November 1943 she was immediately muredered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card of Jacob van Gelder, archive cards of Rosetta Jacoba van Gelder, Robert Heiman van Gelder; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Betjen van Gelder-Hemelrijk, Robert Heiman van Gelder, Rebecca de Souza and Rosetta Jacoba van Gelder and additions of a visitor of the website, Bertie van Gelder.