The Jewish family Levie van Gelder, Dijkstraat 10a

Levie van Gelder | * 15 Oct 1873 – † 21 May 1943 | Sobibor
Jula van Gelder-Landau | * 29 Oct 1882 – † 21 May 1943 | Sobibor
Erich van Gelder | * 18 Nov 1909 – † 31 Dec 1943 | Omg.
Warschau Julchen van Gelder | * 22 May 1913 – † 12 Feb 1943 | Auschwitz
Arnold van Gelder | * 23 Nov 1921 – † 13 Nov 1941 | Mauthausen

Arnold, the youngest son of Levie and Jula van Gelder was born on November 23, 1921. He was the first Jewish victim of the Nazi terror from Aalten. When Jews were arrested in the Achterhoek on 7 and 8 October 1941 as a reprisal for an act of sabotage, he was transported to Mauthausen, where he was murdered on 13 November 1941. He turned 20 years old except 10 days.

Levie van Gelder, great-grandson of Aron Gompert who took the surname Van Gelder in 1813, was a butcher and lived in a house at Dijkstraat 10a, next to the former accommodation of the Aalten Antiquities Room. Levie was born in Aalten on 15 October 1873 and married on 22 November 1904 to Jula Landau from Gemen (D), born there on 29 October 1882.

From the marriage of Levie and Jula three children were born. Arnold mentioned above was the youngest. The eldest son, Erich, born November 18, 1909, was also a butcher. He moved to Apeldoorn on 16 June 1939, where he probably worked in the Jewish psychiatric institution Het Apeldoornse Bos, as did his sister Julchen, born on 22 May 1913.
When the Germans transported the almost 1200 patients directly to Auschwitz in the night of 21 to 22 January 1943, 50 nurses went with them. Julchen was probably one of them, because she was murdered in Auschwitz on 12 February. The remaining personnel of Het Apeldoornse Bos were taken to Poland via Westerbork. We know that Erich died in Warsaw on 31 December.

In the month of April 1943, the German occupying forces decided that Gelderland should become Judenrein . All remaining Jews had to go to the transit camp in Vught; sick and disabled people would be picked up and taken to Westerbork. In response to this call, Levie and Jula van Gelder left for Vught on 10 April 1943, so after all their children had already been deported. There has been much speculation as to why they did not go into hiding, even though they had learned about the grim nature of the Nazi regime. Were they tired of grief? Did they hope to see their loved ones in the east again?

They have not been able to answer these questions. On 21 May 1943, Levie (69) and Jula (60) were murdered in Sobibor.

Sources:
They were also from Aalten… Published by: National Hiding Museum and Friends of the Aalten Synagogue
The Jewish Congregation in Aalten. Author: Peter Lurvink
OGS; War Graves Foundation
Shoah Memorial Book
© Aalten Synagogue
©photo: collection E.M. Smilda
©National Hiding Museum Aalten

Arnold van Gelder
* 23 Nov 1921
† 13 Nov 1941 Mauthausen