Alfred Elzas was a son of Jacob Elzas and Rozina Zwartz. He was born on 20 March 1892 in Zutphen into a family of eight children in total. Four of them were killed during the Holocaust: namely Antje, Bendiena Sophia, Mozes and Alfred himself.
Alfred traded in women’s clothing and he worked as a commercial agent for several foreign fashion companies. Before he was wed, he stayed for some time in Berlin but returned to Amsterdam on 24 October 1916. There, he married 8 August 1922 Selina Lopes de Leao Laguna, a daughter of Jacob Emanuel Lopes de Leao Laguna, a stock broker, and Esther Spinossa Cattela.
After the wedding, Alfred and his wife Selina lived at Valeriusstraat 165 in Amsterdam South were their only son Jacob was born on 28 May 1923. On 10 May 1933 the family moved into a house at Scheldestraat 106 3rd stock, which would become also their last known address in Amsterdam.
On 8 August 1942, Alfred and Selina came to Westerbork voluntarily, without being called up, were registered there and stayed there in the camp for more than one year, and in that period also in several barracks: Alfred in barrack 84 and 56 and Selina in barrack 42. Eventually, they have been deported to Auschwitz with the last transport of that year, on 16 November 1943 and on arrival there on 19 November 1943 immediately being killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive card of Alfred Elzas; the Gelders Archief, peoples registry for the family of Jacob Elzas 1844 and Rozina Zwartz 1847; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Alfred Elzas en Selina Elzas - Lopes de Leao Laguna and the Wikipedia website jodentransporten vanuit nederland.nl.