Engeltje van Gelder was the youngest of the thirteen children of Salomon van Geldere and Sophia Polak and was born on 8 July 1878 in Rotterdam. On 9 July 1902 she got married in Rotterdam to Joseph Jacob Zeldenrust, a son of Jacob Joseph Zeldenrust and Catharina Faro. Joseph Jacob Zeldenrust was born on 19 December 1874 and he was a gilder by profession, which meant: covering a subject with a layer of gold.
On her weddingday, Engeltje was also registered in the Peoples Registry of Den Haag, address Toussaintkade 34. Later, the family moved to house nr. 50. Engeltje and Joseph Jacob had five children together, viz. Jacob Joseph on 24 May 1903, Salomon on 17 July 1904, Leon Coenraad on 11 October 1906, Henri Willem on 19 May 1909 and on 13 October 1916 a daughter was born, named Sophie.
The eldest son Jacob Joseph survived the Holocaust and passed asway at the age of 91 on 25 March 1995, after he got widowed on 1 April 1978 from Sophia Jeannetta Manassen. Leon Coenraad also survived the war. He was married to a catholic woman and also their son was baptised roman-catholic. Henrij Willem, an architectural draftsman, moved to Arnhem in 1938 and surived the war most likely too. About him nothing is further known.
After 25 years of marriage, Engeltje van Gelder became widowed of Joseph Jacob Zeldenrust, who passed away in Den Haag on 2 May 1927. He was interred in the Jewish Cemetery of Wassenaar. Her son Salomon married Anna Koekoek and had with her two children, viz. Joseph Jacob in 1931 and Jacques in 1935. Only Joseph Jacob survived the Shoah.
The still unmarried Sophie was employed as an office clerk in Den Haag and lived at home with her mother, the widow Engeltje Zeldenrust-van Gelder at the Toussaintkade 50. Presumably by treason, they were arrested on 5 February 1944 and immediately carried off to Westerbork, where they were locked up in the penal barrack 67. On 8 February Engeltje and her daughter Sophie were deported in a so-called “penal-transport” to Auschwitz, where they both immediately were murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau upon arrival there on 11 February 1944 .
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration card of Salomon van Geldere; the Municipal Archive of Den Haag, family registration card of Joseph Jacob Zeldenrust; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Engeltje Zeldenrust-van Gelder and Sophie Zeldenrust; website stenenarchief.nl/grave Joseph Jacob Zeldenrust at Wassenaar and the Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.