Henri Kichka
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2020) |
Henri Kichka | |
|---|---|
Holocaust education | |
| Spouse |
Lucia Świerczyński
(m. 1949; died 2001) |
| Children | 4; including Michel |
Henri Kichka (14 April 1926 – 25 April 2020) was a
Holocaust education in Belgium.[1] 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. He is the father of cartoonist Michel Kichka
.
Biography
Childhood and the Holocaust
Henri Kichka was born in
.Belgium was
death march to Gross-Rosen and Buchenwald concentration camps 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.[3][2]
Kichka was sent to the airport in
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.[4]
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 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".[5] He published a memoir in 2005.[5][6] 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 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
- ^ "Coronavirus: Auschwitz survivor Henri Kichka dies of Covid-19". BBC News. 26 April 2020.
- ^ a b Joffre, Tzvi (28 April 2020). "Belgian Holocaust survivor Henri Kichka dies of coronavirus". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ^ "Les " 7 nains " d'Henri Kichka : le dessin d'un jeune Juif belge pendant la Shoah". Yad Vashem Institute (in French). 11 July 2019.
- ISBN 9782507052034.
- ^ a b Hoare, Liam (5 May 2020). "Henri Kichka, 94, educated Belgian schoolchildren about the Holocaust". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ^ "Henri Kichka - 14 Ans en 1940". Territoires Memoire (in French). Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
