Sara Schielaar was a daughter of Philip Schielaar and Marianna Zwarts. She was born on 17 December 1864 in Rotterdam and married there Barend van Geldere, a cabinet maker by trade, who was born there on 4 June 1866 as a son of Salomon van Geldere and Sophia Polak. The couple had three children, namely Sophia Roelofina in 1897, Elizabeth in 1900 and Helena Roza in 1902, all born in Rotterdam. However, Sophia Roelofina died already in childhood on 25 April 1902, only 3 ½ years old. Their daughters Elizabeth and Helena Roza did not survive the Holocaust.
Barend van Geldere was a joiner by profession. But he traded also in furniture and later, he had his own furniture shop in Rotterdam and Den Haag. After Barend and Sara were married in 1896, they moved into a house in the Kipstraat in Rotterdam, located near the so-called “Stadsdriehoek” between the districts Citycentre, Rubroek and Kralingen. They lived there at house numbers 21, 63 and 93 but on 22 May 1925, the Van Geldere family left for Molenstraat 12-14 in Den Haag, a narrow shopping street in the city centre.
On 23 July 1931 Barend van Geldere passed away in Den Haag, 65 yeas of age and he was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Wassenaar. Sara Schielaar, now widowed, was left behind in the Molenstraat but later she moved to the Cornelis van der Lijnstraat 6, located in the opposite of the Haagse Bos. At that address, she was also registered with the Jewish Council during the mandatory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands.
It is unclear when Sara van Geldere-Schielaar was arrested in Den Haag and carried off to Westerbork. But on 2 November 1942, she was deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz. Upon arrival there on 5 November 1942, she was immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the City Archiev of Rotterdam, family registration card of Barend van Geldere; the Municipal Archive of Den Haag, family registration card of Barend van Geldere; the website hetstenenarchief.nl/grave Barend van Geldere and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Sara van Geldere-Schielaar.