Kasiel Kranz

Kasiel Kranz, a Polish diamond cutter, emigrated to Belgium in late 1919 and went on to become a diamond merchant. He married Frida Stelzer in 1934. Their two children, Oscar and Rachel Kranz, were born in Antwerp, where the family witnessed the beginning of the occupation. They fled to France in August 1942. Frida and her children made it to neutral Switzerland, but Kasiel was detained in the village of Moulins, right on the demarcation line between occupied and unoccupied France. He was interned at Pithiviers. Following a detour via Beaune-la-Rolande, he was deported from Drancy via Transport 38 to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 28 September 1942. Selected fit for work, Kasiel Kranz (42) was ordered off the train at Cosel and assigned as a slave labourer to the Blechhammer sub-camp. Following the reorganization of the Auschwitz camp administration, the number 177681 was tattooed on his arm in April 1944. Kasiel was evacuated via Buchenwald in early 1945. There is no further trace of him. The circumstances of his death are not known.