Une adolescence perdue dans la nuit des camps

Memoirs of a Jew born in Brussels in 1926 to a family of Polish origin. When the Germans occupied Belgium in May 1940, the family sought refuge in Haute-Garonne in France. There, they were arrested by the French and interned first in Agde, then in Rivelsaltes. In January 1941 they were released and returned to Brussels, but in September 1942 they were arrested and deported. Kichka and his father were sent to labor camps in Upper Silesia, while his mother and two sisters were sent to Auschwitz, where they perished. For three years Kichka and his father survived in various labor camps, including those of Klein-Mangersdorf, Annaberg, and Schoppinitz, as well as in Blechhammer, Gross-Rosen, and Buchenwald. They were then sent on a death march, during which his father died. After the liberation Kichka returned to Brussels.