Alexandre Pinkus

Alexandre Pinkus, a Polish Jew, was a chemical engineer and doctor in physical sciences, and a graduate of Paris and Geneva. He arrived in Belgium from Switzerland in 1920, to take up a post in the “School of Mines” at Mons. In 1923 he became a junior lecturer in analytical chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of the ULB. Following the German Ordnance of 28 October 1940 he was then forbidden to teach. He held the position of vice-president of the “Central Education Commission” in the Association of Jews in Belgium (AJB), which was established on the order of the occupying forces in November 1941. He was arrested on 13 September 1943 and interned in the Dossin Barracks, where he was put down for deportation on Transport 22 A (as an Ausländer/foreigner). Despite his age (52) Alexandre Pinkus was sent to work in the concentration camp upon arrival Auschwitz-Birkenau. In December 1943, he was part of the Kommando responsible for cleaning up the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto, which is where he probably died.