Samuel Elekan was the only son of Maurits Elekan and Rebecca Lopes Carança. He was born on 28 September 1901 and followed in his father’s footsteps – he learned the leather trade and ran a leather goods shop.
On 10 Decembe 1930 he married in Onstwedde (province of Groningen) Geertruida Goudsmid, a daughter of Sander Goudsmid and Engeltje Weinberg. Geertruida was born in Ontswedde on 9 May 1895, lived in at first with her husband in the Weesperstraat 4 upperhouse with his parents, subsequently they moved to Javastraat 69 and to Laurierstraat 95, where Geertuida passed away on 4 May 1937. She was interred in the Jewish Cemetery at Muiderberg. From this marriage was no offspring.
Samuel then remarried Betsy Buitenkant, who was born in Amsterdam on 25 September 1902 as a daughter of Nantes Buitenkant and Klaartje Snijders. The ceremony was solemnized in Amsterdam on 23 March 1938 but also from this marriage there was no offspring. After the passing of his first wife, Samuel moved shortly to Rozengracht 17 1st floor, then in July 1937 again to his parents at Weesperstraat 4 upperhouse and per 17 april 1938 their address became 2e Rozendwarsstraayt 2 2nd floor in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam.
Samuel Elekan had a “Sperre”, an exemption from deportation, issued by the Jewish Council. He became a controller with the JCB, the Jewish Vocational Training Centre in November 1942 and per 1 March 1943 with PIGOL, the shoemakers workshop of the Jewish Council. His wife, Betsy Buitenkant, who took care of the bookkeeping, therefore was also exempted from deportation, until further notice.
On 7 September 1943, Samuel and Betsy were put on transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz. This transport contained 987 deportees and arrive in Auschwitz on 10 September 1943. Upon arrival there, both were not gassed immediately in the gas chambers but were admitted in the camp, although it is not known where she ended up and what kind of “work”she had to do. Eventually she lost her life in Auschwitz on 30 November 1943.
At the other hand, Samel most likely belonged to a group of men, who were deported early October to Warsaw, to clear rubble there in the destroyed ghetto. His exact date of death could not be revealed, so, also based on researches of the Red Cross, it has been established after the war that Samuel Elekan has died in Poland on 31 March 1944.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Maurits Elekan and Samuel Elekan, archive cards of Samuel Elekan and Betsy Buitenkant; residence card of Weesperstraat 4 upperhouse Amsterdam; website stenenarchive/grave Geertruida Goudsmid; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Samuel Elekan and Betsy Elekan-Buitenkant; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl; Brochure Auschwitz IV by the Dutch Red Cross/October 1953 – deportation transports in 1943 to Auschwitz and the death certificate nr. 2 of 26 October 1951 from the A-register-folio2 for Samuel Elekan.