Charles Ben Saïd

Charles Ben Saïd was born in the French colony of Algeria in 1894, and served as a Zouave in the French army. He emigrated to Belgium with his wife Zohra Meyer in 1914. Their sons Maurice and Joseph were both born in Brussels, where, in May 1940, the Ben Saïds witnessed the beginning of the occupation. They took refuge in France in 1942, but were arrested at the demarcation line – the frontier between the occupied and unoccupied zones. The family was sent to Pithiviers via Orléans. 

Charles Ben Saïd (47), Zohra Meyer (48), and their sons Maurice (24) and Joseph (22) were deported from Pithiviers to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport 35 on 21 September 1942. The three men were ordered off the train at Cosel, while Zohra Meyer was taken on to its final destination, after which there is no further trace of her. Charles Ben Saïd and his sons were assigned to forced labour. He alone survived and was repatriated in 1945. The last record of Maurice Ben Saïd is at Blechhammer and of Joseph, at Buchenwald, shortly before the camp’s liberation.