Henri Kichka
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Henri Kichka (14 April 1926 – 25 April 2020) was a Belgian writer and Holocaust survivor who was one of the leading figures in
Holocaust education Holocaust education is efforts, in either formal or informal settings, to teach about the Holocaust. Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust addresses didactics and learning, under the larger umbrella of education about the Holocaust, which also ...
in Belgium. Kichka was the only member of his family to have survived the deportation of Belgian Jews to camps in Central and Eastern Europe. He began speaking on the importance of the memory of those who perished at the hands of the Nazis in the 1980s and spoke widely on his experiences to school audience. In 2005, published his autobiography, ''Une adolescence perdue dans la nuit des camps'' with a preface by the French historian
Serge Klarsfeld Serge Klarsfeld (born 17 September 1935) is a Romanian-born French activist and Nazi hunter known for documenting the Holocaust in order to establish the record and to enable the prosecution of war criminals. Since the 1960s, he has made notab ...
. He is the father of cartoonist
Michel Kichka Michel Kichka (born 1954 in Liège, Belgium) is an Israeli cartoonist and illustrator of Belgian origin. His father was Holocaust survivor Henri Kichka. Biography Michel Kichka was born in Belgium to Henri Kichka, a Holocaust survivor, and his ...
.


Biography


Childhood and the Holocaust

Henri Kichka was born in
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
,
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
on 14 April 1926 into a
Jewish family Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
which had emigrated from
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
. His father, Josek Kichka (Kiszka), had been born in
Skierniewice Skierniewice is a city in central Poland with 47,031 inhabitants (2021), situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), previously capital of Skierniewice Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Skierniewice County. The town is situate ...
in modern-day
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, then part of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, in 1898, and fled the country in 1918 as a result of rising Polish anti-Semitism, moving to Belgium. His mother, Chana Gruszka, had been born in Kałuszyn in 1899 and arrived in Belgium in 1924. The couple renounced their Polish nationality in Belgium and became stateless. Henri was the eldest of the couple's three children. In 1935, the family moved to the Brussels municipality of Saint-Gilles where the family became moderately involved with the local synagogue. In school, Henri learned
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
,
Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
, and
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
. He was forbidden from learning
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
. Belgium was invaded in May 1940 and placed under military occupation. The family fled the invasion as part of the ''exode'' and ended up in
French Third Republic The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...
, arriving in
Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
. They settled temporarily in
Revel Revel may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Revel (brand), a French brand from the 1920s * Parapluie Revel, a French umbrella from the 1920s * Revel Atlantic City, a former resort and casino in New Jersey * Revel Audio, a loudspeaker company o ...
and were ultimately forced into a refugee camp in
Agde Agde (; ) is a commune in the Hérault department in Southern France. It is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi. Location Agde is located on the Hérault river, from the Mediterranean Sea, and from Paris. The Canal du Midi con ...
by the Vichy authorities. They moved to several different camps and were then released to
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. On 1 August 1942, Kichka's sister, Bertha, received her summons to
Mechelen transit camp The Mechelen transit camp, officially () in German, also known as the Dossin barracks, was a detention and deportation camp established in a former army barracks at Mechelen in German-occupied Belgium. It served as a point to gather Belgian Je ...
ostensibly for compulsory labor service in
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
. The family accompanied her to the train station, and it would be the last time they saw her. Bertha Kichka was murdered upon arrival at
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
in August 1942. The rest of the family was deported in the Ninth Convoy of 12 September 1942. Kichka and his father were assigned to work on a railroad, and his mother, aunt, and sister were killed at Auschwitz on 14 September 1942. Henri and Josek were moved from camp to camp in Germany working as forced labourers and participated in a death march to Gross-Rosen and
Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...
s in the final weeks of the war. Henri was liberated on 30 April 1945 but Josek had died at Buchenwald a few days earlier after having a foot amputated. Kichka was sent to the airport in
Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
, where he stayed for 17 days, and was then transported back to Belgium by a truck. He weighed . He stayed at a reception center in
Uccle Uccle () or Ukkel () is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. In common with all of Brussels' municipalities, it is legally bilingual (French–Dutch). It is generally considered an affluent area of the city a ...
, Brussels and was diagnosed with
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
. He stayed at Brugmann Hospital in
Alsemberg Alsemberg is a rural town with about 5,300 inhabitants in the municipality of Beersel, in the province of Flemish Brabant, Belgium, situated south of Brussels. The official language is Dutch (as everywhere in Flanders). Located close to Brussels, ...
for 16 months. He joined an orphanage on 30 August 1946. He was the only child there who had survived the concentration camps, with the rest of them having been
hidden children Hidden children during the Holocaust were the (mainly Jewish) children who were hidden in various different ways during the Holocaust, in order to save them from the Nazis. Most were hidden in Poland, though some were hidden in Western Europe. Not a ...
. He then rented an apartment with his friend, Beno Linzer and began as a leather worker. In 1947, he joined the ''Union sportive des jeunes Juifs''. On 9 April 1949, Kichka married Lucia Świerczyński. He obtained Belgian nationality in 1952. He would later write that his adolescence was "lost" in the concentration camps.


Holocaust education

Kichka did not discuss what he had endured until the 1980s. The suicide of his son Charly changed his attitude and he became a prominent figure in
Holocaust education Holocaust education is efforts, in either formal or informal settings, to teach about the Holocaust. Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust addresses didactics and learning, under the larger umbrella of education about the Holocaust, which also ...
in Belgium. He spoke widely on the subject in school and took part in school visits to Auschwitz and "educating the young about the Holocaust became his raison d’être". He published a memoir in 2005. Henri Kichka died on 25 April 2020 at the age of 94, eleven days after his birthday, in Brussels as a result of
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
during the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium.


Publications

* ''Une adolescence perdue dans la nuit des camps''. Waterloo: Édition Luc Pire, 2005.


See also

* Paul Sobol (1926–2020), Belgian Holocaust survivor also active in Holocaust education


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kichka, Henri Buchenwald concentration camp survivors 1926 births 2020 deaths Writers from Brussels Belgian Ashkenazi Jews Belgian people of Polish-Jewish descent Naturalised citizens of Belgium Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Stateless people Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium The Holocaust in Belgium