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.
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
“Labor Deployment Order” for Sigmund Aufrychter for the deportation from Mechelen to Auschwitz on August 11, 1942. Source: Archives de l'État en Belgique, Brüssel
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
The shoemaker Sigmund Aufrychter at work, Charleroi, before 1940. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
