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Joseph Leuchter was a student when he and his parents emigrated from Poland to Antwerp in the 1920s. He earned a living in the Flemish city selling socks and stockings. Joseph fled to France when the Germans invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. A year later, on 14 May 1941, the Paris police ordered thousands of foreign Jews living in the city to present themselves at the prefecture, ostensibly to check their legal status. The 3,700 mostly Polish Jews who reported to the office were immediately arrested. Joseph Leuchter was among them. He was interned at Pithiviers and deported from there on 25 June 1942 via Transport 4 to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The 1,000 men on the transport were all assigned to the labour camp on arrival. Joseph Leuchter (38) was registered as number 42288. According to the Auschwitz Sterbebücher (death books), he died a month after arrival on 29 July 1942.