Nechemjasz Wachter

Nechemjasz Wachter was a Polish mechanic who, apart from a few short intervals, lived in Belgium from 1933 onwards. He settled permanently in Antwerp in 1939, and was there at the time of the German invasion in May 1940. Toward the end of that year, the occupation authority ordered thousands of recent immigrants to move out of the city and into the province of Limburg. The Nazis may have feared that anti-German elements would carry out attacks on the Belgian coast and around the port of Antwerp as the Battle of Britain raged. Nechemjasz was among those expelled. He was placed in the Limburg village of Kuringen and was not allowed to leave the province until August 1941, when he moved to Brussels and later to Paris.

A few months later, however, Nechemjasz Wachter was arrested and transferred to the Drancy assembly camp. He was among a group of men found to be fit for work at the Compiègne camp. Nechemjasz was deported from there on 27 March 1942 via Transport 1 to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was selected for forced labour on arrival. The number 28087 was tattooed on his arm. Nechemjasz Wachter (39) did not survive deportation. According to the Auschwitz Sterbebücher (death books), he died on 23 April 1942.