Bernard Aufrychter was born in Oberhausen, Germany, in 1921. In 1924, he and his originally Polish family moved to Charleroi in Belgium. After the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, the Aufrychters fled to southern France. They were interned in a camp by the French government in the fall of 1940. Their attempt to obtain visas for the United States failed.
In the summer of 1941, Bernard’s brother Charles was able to leave the camp thanks to a Jewish aid organization, and moved to a children’s home. Bernard Aufrychter and his parents managed to escape from Rivesaltes internment camp. They stayed with friends, the Friedman family in Canet-en-Roussillon, for a while and then returned to Charleroi.
Bernard Aufrychter was deported from the Mechelen assembly camp to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp with his father on August 11, 1942. He never returned.
The brothers Lajbus, Charles, and Bernard Aufrychter (left to right), Charleroi, 1932. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Perla and Sigmund Aufrychter (2nd from left and 1st from right) with their sons Bernard, Charles, and Lajbus (left to right) and Lajbus Aufrychter’s wife Lucie (4th from left) in the garden of their house in Charleroi, around 1939. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Bernard and Sigmund Aufrychter (in the cart, left and right) with Mr. Friedman (left) on the Friedman family farm, summer 1941. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Excerpt from the deportation list from Mechelen assembly camp to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, including the names of Sigmund and Bernard Aufrychter (Nos. 9 and 10), dated August 11, 1942. Source: Archives de l'État en Belgique, Brüssel – Service Archives des Victimes de la Guerre, AOS-AVG-TLII, p. 01
Bernard Aufrychter with a bicycle with the flag of the Zionist Betar party attached to it, Charleroi, 1938. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
