Perla Aufrychter came from Poland and lived in Charleroi, Belgium, with her husband and children from 1924. 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, they entrusted their son Charles to the Jewish children’s charity OSE. He was able to leave the camp and was put into a children’s home. Perla Aufrychter, her husband, and their son Bernard 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. In 1942 they brought Charles home to the family. After her husband and son Bernard were deported in the summer of 1942, Perla Aufrychter went into hiding with Charles. She obtained forged papers in the name of Rosalie Wierack.
On April 18, 1944, Perla Aufrychter was uncovered, arrested by Belgian police officers, and handed over to the German occupiers. There is no historical record of her after that date.
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
The Aufrychter family in Rivesaltes internment camp, 1941. Left to right: the Aufrychters’ friends the Lewkoviczs from Charleroi, Charles, Sigmund, and Perla Aufrychter. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Charles Aufrychter with his mother Perla on Rue de la Montagne in the center of Charleroi, May 1942. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
