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Martin Kaufmann arrived in Belgium on a Kindertransport from Germany in 1939. He was placed in various orphanages by the Assistance Council for Jewish Refugees. Martin accepted the Arbeitseinsatzbefehl and was deported with transport I to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was murdered.
Martin Kaufmann was born on December 11, 1924 in Frankfurt am Main. On December 7, 1938 the Belgian government granted a temporary residence permit to 250 Jewish children from Germany. With a Kindertransport they arrived in Belgium on January 12, 1939 where they could live pending further emigration. After Martin’s departure, his mother Rosa Leichtentritt stayed behind alone in Frankfurt am Main. Martin’s father, Julius Kaufmann, had already died.
In Belgium, Martin was first accommodated in Wezembeek by the Jewish Refugee Council. Twelve days after his arrival he received a certificate to stay in Belgium until November 30, 1939. Then on February 1, 1939 Martin moved in with Erich Korytowski at Wijnheuvelenberg in Schaarbeek. He stayed there until November 14, 1939. Afterwards Martin moved to the Speyer home in Anderlecht.
In May 1940 Nazi Germany invaded Belgium. Martin was transferred to the orphanage of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek on November 21, 1940. As a resident of the orphanage, he was registered by the Jewish Association in 1942. When the “evacuation” of the Jews began in August 1942, Martin was put on transport I to Auschwitz-Birkenau together with 572 other men and 426 women. The total deportation transport thus comprised 999 people. Martin, like 819 of these 999 Jews, accepted the Arbeitseinsatzbefehl, the employment order issued by the Sipo-SD. As ‘obligated workers’ they were summoned to the assembly camp in Mechelen and then deported. Martin was put on the list of transport I under number 584. Transport I left the Dossin Barracks on August 4, 1942 and headed for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the train arrived on August 5, 1942. Martin did not survive.
Martin’s mother, Rosa Leichtentritt, was also deported from Theresienstadt (a ghetto and concentration camp in the Czech Republic) to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She was also murdered.
Publication info:
ADRIAENS Ward, STEINBERG Maxime (et al.), Mecheln-Auschwitz, 1942-1944. The destruction of Jews and gypsies from Belgium, 4 volumes (volume 1), Brussels, 2009.
