Keetje Schnitzler was the third of the seven children of Samuel and Sara Schnitler, who, as cousins in the 1st degree were married 21 November 1866 in Rotterdam. Keetje’s parents have passed away already respectively in 1913 and 1918 and after the passing of her mother, her brother David Schnitzler became “head of the family”. When her brother David then got married on 6 December 1922 to Sara den Hartogh and went elsewhere with his wife, the unmarried Keetje, seamstress by trade, was considered then as “head of the family”, with family members living with her, such as her brother Meijer and her sister Anna, and still living in the Almondestraat 24a in Rotterdam. In July 1923 she left the Almondestraat 24a for the Benthuizerstraat 79b and lived in there about 9 months with her sister Rebecca, who was married to Abraham Davids.
On 25 March 1924 Keetje returned at the Almondestraat 24a, where she then lived in with her sister Anna, who was married to Bernardus van Klaveren. She lived at this address till 30 July 1940 but then she moved to Schoonoordstraat 8b and on 22 October 1940 to Burgemeester Roosstraat 14b, again a lodging. Eventually, Keetje and her sister Anna and brother-in-law Bernardus van Klaveren ended up in the Enschotstraat 20 near the Zuidplein in Rotterdam, a street which does not excist anymore since June 1966. On 10 April 1943, she was taken from there to Westerbork and had to stay in barrack 57, till she was deported to Sobibor on 20 April, together with her sister and brother-in-law. On arrival on 23 April 1942, they were immediately killed there in the gas chambers of Sobibor.
Keetje’s sister Anna Schnitzler, also seamstress by trade, had already left home in 1918 and went to living in with her sister Maria in the Zoomstraat 68b, who was married to Johannes Martinus Stilting. On 1 October 1919 she moved to Zoomstraat 13b and on 3 July 1920 she returned to Almondestraat 24a, where her brother David was still living there. Anna stayed there till she married the butcher Bernardus van Klaveren on 27 December 1922. The Van Klaveren-Schnitzler couple had no children.
In the end, Anna and her husband Bernardus ended up in the Enschotstraat 20 (no longer in existence since June 1966) which then was located near the Zuidplein in Rotterdam, and from where they have been carried off to Westerbork on 10 April 1943. In Westerbork they ended up in barack 57 and on 20 April they were put on transport to Sobibor. There, on arrival on 23 April 1943 they were immediately killed in the gas chambers there.
Her brother Meijer Schnitzler, a tailor by profession, soon started looking for an own living space and on 17 June 1923 he left Keetje in Almondestraat 24a for Benthuizenstraat 79b, where he lived with Abraham Davids, who was married to his sister Rebecca. However Meijer returned to Almondestraat 24a in March 1924 where he lived in with his sister Anna and brother-in-law Bernardus van Klaveren. On 8 August 1928 Meijer Schnitzler married Sophia Cohen and together they moved into a house at Katshoek 23b. They had no children together. After having moved to Prinsenstraat 54b, Meijer’s wife Sophia Cohen passed away there on 2 March 1930.
Three weeks later, on 24 March, Meijer found lodging in the Zwart Janstraat 64. Presumably Meijer was not completely healthy because from 25 November 1932 he used the provisions of the Invalidy Act. In the years between 1930 and 1935 he moved another three times to different addresses in the Zwart Janstraat and through the Noordsingel 40a and 39b he arrived on 18 November 1937 at the address Baan 53 near the Leuven port. Thereafter, Meijer Schnitzler ended up in the Jewish Hospital in the Schietbaanlaan 42, there he passed away on 19 February 1938.
Sources among others: the city Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of Samuel Schnitzler (1833), Keetje Schnitzler, Meijer Schnitzler and Bernardus van Klaveren; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council registration cards of Keetje Schnitzler, Anna van Klaveren-Schnitzler and Bernardus van Klaveren.