Elisabeth Duizend was a daughter of the rose cutter Hartog Duizend (1851-1921) and Alida Asscher (1847-1939). She was born on 14 April 1875 in Amsterdam and lived at home with her parents, brothers and sisters, until she was deregistered from Amsterdam to The Hague on 16 January 1901.
Elisabeth Duizend married Salomon Duitz, a son of the cigar maker Levie Duitz and Louise Zwaap, on 16 January 1901 in Amsterdam. Salomon Duitz was a religious teacher, lived in The Hague where he was headmaster. After the marriage had been concluded, the bride also left for The Hague, where their son Louis was born on 1 January 1902, followed by daughter Alida on 27 February 1903, and their daughter Louise was born there on 30 May 1904.
In August 1905, the Duitz family left The Hague for Amsterdam, where they lived at various addresses, such as in May 1906 at Kazernestraat 26, from May 1911 at Plantage Doklaan 10, from January 1914 at Plantage Doklaan 36 II. Per 5 May 1925 the family lived at Linneausparkweg 35. Salomon Duitz died there on 8 August 1934 and was interred in Muiderberg Jewish Cemetery on 10 August 1934.
Shortly afterwards, on 5 October 1934, the widow Duitz-Duizend and her children still living at home were registered at the address Swammerdamstraat 24 hs in Amsterdam East. Because in the meantime, after Louis, Alida and Louise in The Hague, six more children had been born in Amsterdam, namely: Henri on 8 May 1906, Simon on 29 April 1907, Herman on 19 January 1913, Annie on 4 April 1915; Joseph was born on 7 July 1908, but died on 1 January 1926.
After Elisabeth Duizend was registered with the Jewish Council in 1941, she was temporarily exempted from deportation because of her son Herman Duitz, who was an employee of the Jewish Council of Amsterdam, Westerbork department. She received the high exemption number 96014, which lay in the number series 80000 to 100000, the actual Jewish Council stamps. But on 17 April 1943 she was arrested and taken to Westerbork, where she ended up in barrack 55.
A note on Elisabeth Duitz-Duizend's Jewish Council card shows that in addition to her son Herman and his wife Helene Levie, she also managed to obtain a so-called “Albersheim declaration”. This statement, also called the Palestine certificate, would offer the opportunity to emigrate to Palestine, but this was a registration, a provisional one, which did not yet provide the certainty that emigration to Palestine would actually take place.
It is not known whether the above led to a postponement of deportation for Elisabeth Duitz-Duizend, but it is known that she was only deported of 20 July 1943, the last transport from Westerbork to Sobibor, where she arrived on 23 July 1943, together with another 1165 victims (among them also her daughter Alida and son Simon) and where all have been murdered immediately in the gas chambers. There were no survivors.
Sources include the Amsterdam City Archives, family cards of Hartog Duizend (1851) and Salomon Duitz (1873); archive card Elisabeth Duizend;Residence card Amsterdam/Plantage Doklaan 36 II; Website stenenarchief.nl/grave Salomon Duitz/record 31229; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration card of Elisabeth Duitz-Duizend; website Jodentransporten uit Nederland.nl/transport 20 July 1943 and the death certificate for Elisabeth Duizend, no. 87 from register 15- folio 15verso, drawn up on 17 November 1947, pursuant to the decision of the District Court in Amsterdam of 26 June 1947, a statement applying to evereyone.