Johanna Gobas was born in Oldenzaal on 21 October 1870 as the daughter of Arie Gobas and Judik Marcus. She married Hartog Schaap on 17 March 1903 in Oldenzaal, then a butcher by trade, who was born in Hilversum on 30 January 1861. He was a son of Hijman Hartog Schaap and Sara van de Beek. Johanna and Hartog had four children together, namely Hijman Arie in 1903, Julia in 1906 and on 27 March 1909, the twins Sara and Adolf followed. Hijman Arie and Sara survived the Holocaust with their families.
After their wedding day they left for Hilversum, where they lived until November 1912. Then they moved to Amsterdam, but their marriage did not go well anymore. In Amsterdam they moved in 1913 from the Tuinstraat to the Nieuwe Keizersgracht, but Hartog Schaap, who became a dealer of all kinds of merchandise, more or less went his own way and no longer lived with his family. But they were never officially divorced.
Johanna Gobas then left on 26 January 1916 with her sons Hijman Arie, Adolf and daughter Sara to Oldenzaal and lived there at Ootmarsumsestraat 19. Her 10-year-old daughter Julia had already been sent from Amsterdam on 12 January 1916 to family in Enschede who lived in Hofstraat 4.
The many wanderings of her husband Hartog Schaap were probably not the cause, but Johanna Gobas has also moved more than ten times over the years. In May 1916 from Oldenzaal to Enschede, where she lived with her children until 1933, then to Lonneker, and moved back to Enschede a year later.
From 16 May 1934 she stayed in Apeldoorn with her daughter Sara, who was married to Jacob Groenberg. After the birth of her grandson Lezer Groenberg on 23 May 1935, she left for Enschede on 23 September 1935, while the Groenberg family left for Den Helder on 8 October 1936. Johanna paid a short visit to Den Helder on 29 April 1936, where her daughter Julia was now married to Cornelis van Rooijen and her grandson Israël celebrated his 7th birthday.
In August 1940, Johanna was in Zandvoort to attend the 2nd wedding of her daughter Sara who married Pieter de Lught on 19 September 1940, after divorcing Jacob Groenberg in 1938. From October 1940, Johanna Schaap-Gobas lived with Julia and her husband Cornelis van Rooijen at Zeestraat 14 in Beverwijk, who had a dance school there. Julia's son Israël de Groot also lived there with his mother and stepfather.
On 15 January 1943, Johanna presumably was forced to move from Beverwijk to Amsterdam, where she ended up on Transvaalkade 9a in Amsterdam East. She was only able to live there for a short time; on 9 February 1943 she was arrested there and deported to Westerbork and on 16 February deported to Auschwitz, where on arrival on 19 February 1943, she was immediately murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz Birkenau.
Sources inclued the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Hartog Schaap, archive cards of Hartog Schaap and Johanna Gobas; website Coda.nl/peoples registry Apeldoorn/Johanna Schaap-Gobas; residence card Amsterdam of Transvaalkade 9a/Johanna Schaap-Gobas; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Johanna Schaap-Gobas and the website Oorlogsdoden Oldenzaal.nl/ (Dutch language only).