Samuel Duque was a son of Jacob Duque and Rebekka Dwinger and the second of their three children. He was born on 18 June 1894 in Amsterdam and earned his living as a traveler and commercial agent. Before his marriage, he lived at home with his parents and sisters at Weesperstraat, Plantage Kerklaan 2, but on 22 July 1926 he married the 26-year old Estella Werkendam, a daughter of Mozes Werkendam and Rebecca Roco, who was born on 15 March 1900 in Amsterdam.
When their marriage was concluded in 1926, Samuel and Estella briefly lived in with Estella's parents at the Linneauskade 8, but soon moved to the Plantage Muidergracht 161, where Samuel had already found a place to live with Vogels, up from 15 July, but mid-December 1926 they moved into living space with Bernard Janning at the Tweede Jan Steenstraat 114 ground floor.
After Estella's father, Mozes Werkendam, had died on 9 October 1928 at the age of 55 and was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Diemen, Estella and Samuel went to live in with her mother Rebecca Werkendam-Roco, who had now moved to Vrolikstraat 95, 1st floor, and up from 3 July 1929 to the 1st floor of Rijnstraat 12. The daughter of Samuel and Estella was born there on 18 August 1930: Alette.
On 13 July 1933, Samuel Duque and his family independently moved into a house at Scheldestraat 75, 2nd floor, where Samuel's mother-in-law Rebecca Werkendam-Roco up from early November 1933 also came to live in. At the end of December 1935 she moved with the Duque family to Waverstraat 103 1st floor and in May 1937 to Uiterwaardenstraat 85 1st level.
Samuel Duque was deported from the Hollandse Schouwburg in Amsterdam to Westerbork on 7 August 1942, together with his 2-year younger sister Penina van Zuiden-Duque. Penina's 1920 marriage to Abraham van Zuiden remained childless and she became widowed on 25 September 1940. She lived at Geleenstraat 51 and was completely alone, which may be the reason why her brother Samuel accompanied her “Ohne Aufruf” (without being called up) to Westerbork.
On 10 August 1942, Samuel Duque was deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz in a transport of 559 deportees. The transport lists Westerbork-Auschwitz from the Auschwitz Archives show that Penina van Zuiden-Duque also has arrived in Auschwitz in the same transport. Both were employed and killed there, but it is not known where and when exactly they died.
After the war, the Dutch Authorities determined, partly on the basis of investigations by the Red Cross, that given the inhumane conditions and hardships, Samuel Duque and Penina van Zuiden-Duque could no longer have been alive after 30 September 1942. The Municipality of Amsterdam was then instructed to draw up death certificates for them, recording that Samuel and Penina died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.
More than seven months later, on the night of 4 to 5 March 1943, Estella Duque-Werkendam and her daughter Alette Werkendam were arrested in Amsterdam and taken to the Vught concentration camp. On 6 June 1943, Aletta Duque was deported to Sobibor with the so-called “Childrens transport” via a stopover and overnight in barracks 62 in Westerbork. Mother Estella accompanied her. The deportation train left again Westerbork on 8 June 1943 direction Sobibor and included 3017 victims, all of whom were murdered in the gas chambers upon arrival in there on 11 June 1943.
It might be possible to reconstruct the fate of mother-in-law Rebecca Werkendam-Roco from the data as mentioned at her Jewish Council registration card. She might not have received a call to report for transport to concentration camp Vught ór she might have managed to avoid arrest and deportation to Vught together with her daugher Estella and granddaughter Alette, that night of 4 to 5 March 1943.
Nevertheless, that same night Rebecca Werkendam-Roco has been still arrested and taken to Westerbork, where she was locked up in penal barrack 67. On 10 March 1943, she was deported with more than 1100 other deportees to Sobibor, where she was immediately was murdered in the gas chambers there upon arrival on 13 March 1943.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration cards of Jacob Duque (1867), Samuel Duque (1894) and Mozes Werkendam (1873); archive cards of Samuel Duque, Estella Werkendam, Alette Duque and Rebecca Werkendam-Roco (1873); various residence cards of Amsterdam from the Amsterdam Archive; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Samuel Duque, Esther Duque-Werkendam, Alette Duque, Rebecca Werkendam-Roco and of Penina van Zuiden-Duque; website ITS Arolson/camp card Alette Duque; archives of the Red Cross/transportlist Amsterdam-Westerbork of 7 August 1942/Samuel Duque and Penina Duque; website Memorial & Museum Auschwitz-Birkanau/Auschwitz Prisoners/transportlists fromt Westerbork with Samuel Duque and Penina van Zuiden and the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl.