Isodore van Geldere was a son of Saul van Geldere and Sientje Fransman. He was the seventh of the thirteen children in the family and he was born on 31 October 1894 in Doesburg. During his stay in Harlingen, where he arrived from Arnhem as a 16-year old boy, he worked as a baker. He lived in the Scheerstraat 3 in the old centre of the city and on 13 January 1913, Isodore left again for Doesburg.
On 18 December 1919 Isodore van Geldere married in Den Bosch Eva Nort, who was born there on 10 September 1897 as a daughter of Meijer Philippus Nort and Wilhelmina de Jong. He earned a living for his family as a hawker and as a dealer in all kinds of merchandise.
The Van Geldere-Nort couple started in Den Bosch, left after the birth of their first daughter Sientje Wilhelmina already in 1921 through Arnhem to Nijmegen and in 1930 to Tilburg, from were they arrived in 1933 in Amsterdam. There they lived at Rapenburg 84, moved one year later to the Dani Theronstraat 33 and on 15 December 1937 they moved into a house in the Vrolikstraat 78 1st floor, which would turn out to be their last known address in the Netherlands some years later.
Meantime, Isodore and Eva had a family with six children. The eldest Sientje Wilhelmina wa born 29 October 1920 in Den Bosch; their second daughter Wilhelmina Magdalena was born in Nijmegen on 10 March 1921; also Saul on 2 May 1923, Magdalena on 9 March 1927 and Salomon Hartog on 18 July 1928. Their youngest child, Betsij Kaatje was born on 9 October 1930 in Tilburg.
Their daughter Wilhelmina Magdalena married on 19 August 1942 Abraham Philips, a son of Eduard Philips and Grietje Slier and both survived the Holocaust, just as her brother Saul, who after war's end left Amsterdam for Haarlem on 19 December 1945. All other members of the family were murdered during the Shoah. It turned out that they had been arrested during the major raids at the beginning of October 1942 and taken to Westerbork, where they ended up in great chaos: because at the same time, the Jewish labor camps were liquidated by the Germans and all Jewish forced labourers also ended up in Westerbork.
The eldest daughter Sientje Wilhelmina married on 20 July 1942 Meijer Stodel; both were deported to Auschwitz on 27 July 1942. Sientje lost her life there, but it is not known where and when. Therefore the Dutch Ministry of Justice after the war has established that she has died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942. According to the death records of Auschwitz, the “Sterbebücher”, her newly wed groom Meijer Stodel was murdered on 17 August 1942; however, after the war, the Dutch Authorities have established that Meijer Stodel died in Auschwitz on 18 August 1942.
The other members of the Isodore van Geldere family were put on transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz on 9 October 1942, together with another 1700 deportees. Upon arrival in Auschwitz on 12 October 1942, Eva van Geldere-Nort and her children Magdalena, Salomon Hartog and Betsij Kaatje were immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
On arrival at the “Rampe”, the platform, Isodore was selected to be put to work in forced labor. Not known is where he ended up, nor the kind of work he had to do or when exactly he has lost his life.
Therefore, the Dutch Authorities after the war have established, also based on testimonials of survivors, research and other informations, that Isodore van Geldere no longer could be alive after 31 January 1943. The Municipality of Amsterdam then was commissioned to draw up a certificate of death for Isodore van Geldere, in which was established that he has died in Auschwitz on 31 January 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Isodore van Geldere, archive cards of Isodore van Geldere and Eva Nort; website openarchieven.nl/allefriezen/population register/Isodore van Geldere in Harlingen; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Isodore van Geldere, Eva van Geldere-Nort and Magdalena, Salomon Hartog van Geldere; website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the death certificate for Isodore van Geldere, nr. 160 from the A-register 59-folio 28verso dated 24 November 1950 made out in Amsterdam.