Rosa Catharina Schaap-van der Heijden

Rosa Catharina van der Heijden was the widow of Gustave Schaap. The couple lived at 32 Amazonenstraat in Amsterdam. Gustave Schaap was previously married to Debora Visser, but that marriage was dissolved through divorce. He had a child that survived the war.
Amsterdam municipal archive, Records Jokos, Möbel-claim 34796; property Joods Maatschappelijk Werk

Rosa van der Heijden was a daughter of Salomon van der Heijden and Johanna Francisca Warendorf.
Stadsarchief Amsterdam, archiefkaart Rosa Catharina van der Heijden

Rosa Catharina Schaap-van der Heijden took her own life under pressure of the circumstances.
NIOD, Records Joodse Raad, box 36d, letter dd. 23 September 1942

Gustave Schaap married for the first time in 1935 in Amsterdam. This marriage was dissolved in 1939. He had one child from this marriage. He married Rosa Catharina van der Heijden on 9 April 1941.
Stadsarchief Amsterdam, archiefkaart Gustave Schaap

It is still an extremely sensitive topic: suicide during the Second World War. Historians have not known what to do with it for a long time. What is the place of suicide in war history?

Remarkably little has been written on this subject and there seems to be no list of names or memorial books at all. The Digital Monument (www.joodsmonument.nl) offers a place where relatives, sometimes for the firs…