Betje van Gelder was a daughter of David van Gelder and Eva Leman. She married the butcher Calmer Schrijver from Muntendam 21 March 1918 in Avereest, a son of Jakob Schrijver and Jetta Klein. The couple had no children and lived in Dedemsvaart, address F 323, today named Wisseling 10 in Dedemsvaart.
Her husband, Calmer Schrijver, passed away in Avereest 21 April 1927 and was interred in the Israelitic Cemetery at Mulderij in Dedemsvaart. After his passing Betje van Gelder moved a few times, as to Meppel, to Leek but in 1935 she returned to Dedemsvaart, address Wisseling F 323 but moved later to Tuinstraat F60 in Dedemsvaart.
In the meantime, Calmer Schrijver’s butchery was made over to David van Gelder and Betje had a trade in groceries, mainly consisting of coffee, tea and cocao. At her bicycle, she had made a big basket, in where her trade was stored she could sell and with which she cycled alongside her customers every week. And in the week prior to Easter she sold “matzos” to her customers, what she called
“Easter bread”.
When de Jews had to hand in their bicycles by order of the German occupiers, Betje was hit hard by this measure. But she got help and was put in possession of a handcart, so that she could still serve her customers – even without a bicycle.
Betje Schrijver-van Gelder was deported from Dedemsvaart to Westerbork 2 October 1942 and put on transport to Auschwitz 9 October On arrival there 12 October 1942, the 67-year old Betje van Gelder was immediately killed.
Website wiewaswie.nl, marriage Schrijver/van Gelder; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Betje Schrijver-van Gelder and from the book “De Joodse Gemeenschap van Avereest”, pages 37-39, by Peter Makaske, published in 1992 by Servo Publishers, Adolph van Ansenlaan 16, 9451 GR Rolde (Drenthe). (ISBN 90-71918-44-0).