Henri Kichka

Henri Kichka
Born	14 April 1926 Brussels, Belgium
Died	25 April 2020(2020-04-25) (aged 94) Brussels, Belgium
Nationality	Belgian
Occupation(s)	Speaker Memorialist

Henri Kichka (14 April 1926 – 25 April 2020) was a Belgian survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. He was the only member of his family to have survived the deportation of Jews out of Belgium.

In the 1980s, he began speaking on the importance of the memory of those who perished at the hands of the Nazis. In 2005, he wrote his autobiography, Une adolescence perdue dans la nuit des camps, prefaced by Serge Klarsfield. He is the father of cartoonist Michel Kichka.

Biography

Childhood

Henri's father was Josek Kichka, born in Skierniewice, Poland on 13 August 1898. In 1918, Josek fled the rise of antisemitism, but was imprisoned by Germany on the way. After he was freed, he settled in Brussels. Henri's mother, Chana Gruszka, was born in Kałuszyn, Poland on 15 December 1899. She arrived in Belgium in 1924. The couple renounced their Polish nationality and lived as stateless people.

The oldest child, Henri Kichka was born on 14 April 1926 in Brussels. His sister, Bertha, was born on 30 August 1927, and Nicha was born on 27 October 1933. In 1935, the family moved to Saint-Gilles. The family was moderately active with their local synagogue. In school, Kichka learned French, Yiddish, and German. He was forbidden from learning Polish.

War

In May 1940, Kichka's family was stunned by the Nazi invasion of Belgium. His father decided to take the family to France during the 1940 exodus. They arrived in Toulouse, and then settled in Revel. They were then forced by the Milice to settle in a refugee camp in Agde. They moved to several different camps under the Vichy Regime, and were then released to Paris.

Deportation

On 1 August 1942, Kichka's sister, Bertha, received her summons to Mechelen for compulsory labor. 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 in August 1942. The rest of the family was deported in the 9th 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, performing compulsory labor. Henri was liberated on 30 April 1945, but Josek died a few days earlier after having a foot amputated.

Liberation

Kichka was sent to the airport in Weimar, where he stayed for 17 days, and was then transported back to Belgium by a truck. He weighed 39 kg. He stayed at a reception center in Uccle and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He stayed at Brugmann Hospital in Alsemberg 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. 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.

After the War

On 9 April 1949, Kichka married Lucia Swierczynski. He obtained Belgian nationality in 1952, and his life returned to normal. He would later write that his adolescence was lost in the concentration camps. He had four children with Lucia: Khana, Michel, Irène, and Charly. They had nine grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. Lucia died on 22 September 2001.

Until the early 1980s, Kichka did not discuss what he had endured. After his retirement, he became a speaker on the Holocaust, passing on his testimony to young students and taking part in numerous commemorative journeys to Auschwitz.

Death

Henri Kichka died on 25 April 2020 at the age of 94 in Brussels due to COVID-19.

Publication

• Une adolescence perdue dans la nuit des camps (2005)