The Pioro-Fajwelewicz family

Only Léa, 17, was deported on Transport 3. She had been arrested whereas almost three quarters of the quota were people who had received call-up papers. She was registered on 8 August. There is no record of her arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau. This entire family of Polish Jews was deported, the majority of them on Transport 10. Marie Rachel, 13, her father, Abram Gdala Pioro, 49, a leather worker who worked from home, her mother Golda Fajwelewicz, 42, her two brothers, Salomon Léon, 12 and Jacob, 3 years old. They were arrested while taking supper in their home in the Rue d’Accolay in Brussels on 12 September. There is no record of the arrival of any of them at Auschwitz. The only member of the family to survive the deportation was Maurice, then 20 years old. A member of the Jeune Garde Socialiste Unifiée (Unified Socialist Youth Guard), he feared arrest after contacts with his friends had broken down and he found work as an electrician in Linz in Austria. Arrested in September 1942, he was sent back to Brussels where Section IV of the Sipo-SD, made inquiries about his organisation. In June 1943, he was sent by special transport to Auschwitz where he worked in the Jawisowitz Kommando, a coal mine.