Leizer van Gelder, born 15 January 1876 in Winterswijk as son of Alexander van Gelder and Beth de Haas, married 8 June 1900 in Steele, the Eastern part of the city of Essen in Germany to Johanna van Gelder, who was born there 9 June 1877 as daugter of Louis van Gelder and Frederika Lippers. In Steele two children were born: Irmgard (Irma) Friederike on 24 March 1901 and Rudolf Ludwig on 10 September 1908. Their 3rd child Werner Benno was born 7 February 1909 in Essen.
After having stayed for some weeks in Amsterdam, where they have lived in at Vijzelstraat 49 with the Petrus van Beusekom family, they were unsubscribed ex officio from the Peoples Registry of Amsterdam. Probably they might have been shortly returned to Essen but on 16 october 1934, Leizer van Gelder was registered in Den Haag at the address Rijswijksestraat 58b. His wife Johanna followed from Essen to Den Haag on 17 January 1935. Their son Werner Benna van Gelder, salesman, came 28 September 1934 from Amsterdam to Den Haag.
Meantime, their daughter Irma was married to Isidore Eduard Kaas on 15 Decembe 1937 and lived with her husband at Van Beverningkstraat 102 in Den Haag. Both sons of Leizer and Johanna moved to Maastricht in 1937 but lived there at different addresses: Werner was registered at St. Antoniuslaan 11b and Rudolf at Heerderweg 52. Their parents Leizer and Johanna followed in 1938 and lived in the beginning also at Heerderweg 52 but moved later to the Maastrichter Pastoorlaan 16b. There, on 1 August 1939 Johanna van Gelder-van Gelder passed away. The last known address for Leizer van Gelder and his sons in Maastricht was Alexander Battalaan 2b.
The children of Leizer and Johanna van Gelder lost their lives during the Shoah: Irma, together with her little daughter of 1 year old, Johanna Jeannette Kaas was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz on 19 October 1942; her husband Isidore Kaas lost his life 30 November 1943 in the Reichsautobahnlager Annaberg; Werner Benno van Gelder died 4 May 1945 somewhere in Bavaria and Rudolf Ludwig van Gelder was killed in Dachau on 5 December 1944. Only Leizer van Gelder self has survived the Holocaust; he passed away 16 May 1957 in Rotterdam, aged 81.
Sources among others: City Archive of Amsteram, family registration card of Leizer van Gelder; residence card of Vijzelstraat 49 Amsterdam; Municipal Archive of Den Haag, family registration card of Leizer van Gelder; website wiewaswie.nl/passing of Johanna van Gelder and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Leizer van Gelder.