The shoemaker Sigmund Aufrychter came from Poland, and lived in Charleroi, Belgium, with his wife 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 Charles to the Jewish children’s charity OSE. He was able to leave the camp and was put in a children’s home. Sigmund Aufrychter, his wife 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.
On August 11, 1942, Sigmund Aufrychter and his son Bernard were deported from Mechelen assembly camp to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. He was murdered there three weeks later.