Biography

About Salomon Albert van Geldere and his wife Sara van Dam.

Salomon Albert van Geldere, born in Doesburg op 4 June 1889, was the eldest of the thirteen children of Saul van Geldere and Sientje Fransman. He married Sara van Dam on 25 March 1914 in Arnhem, a daughter of Leendert van Dam and Rosette Kruijer. Sara was born in Arnhem on 11 April 1883. Salomon and Sara had two children together, namely Saul Leendert in 1916 and Rosette Marianne in 1917, who were born both in Rotterdam.

One day after their weddingday in 1914, Salomon and Sara moved to Amsterdam and came to live there on 26 March 1914 in Weesperstraat 55 3rd floor. Salomon worked in Amsterdam as a cook but already on 25 July 1914, they moved to Rotterdam, where they found living space at the address Strooveer 16, located near the Agniese neighborhood. Between 1924 and 1933 the family relocated another three more times, till they moved in Rotterdam to the Kleine Coolstraat 19b on 28 March 1933. This would be also their last known address in the Netherlands. At some point, Salomon Albert van Geldere changed jobs; from a cook he became a sales representative.

On 12 August 1942 Salomon Albert van Geldere and his wife Sara van Dam were registered in Westerbork and deported on 14 August from Westerbork to Auschwitz in a transport of in total 505 deportees. Upon arrival there on 16 August 1942, Sara van Geldere-van Dam was immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Meanwhile, Salomon Albert – upon arrival on 16 August 1942 already 53-years of age – was still selected to perform labor and was put to work in Auschwitz. His exact date of death is unknown and that is why the Dutch Ministry of Justice after the war commissioned the Municipality of Rotterdam, to draw up a certificate of death for Salomon Albert van Geldere, in which has been established that he has died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.

Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card of Salomon Albert van Geldere; the City Archive of Amsterdam, closed family registration cards (overgenomen delen)/ Salomon Albert van Geldere; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Salomon Albert van Geldere and Sara van Geldere-van Dam; the Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the death certificate for Salomon Albert van Geldere, made out in Rotterdam on 4 August 1950, nr. 2724.

 

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