Today, Wednesday 6th December 2023, a “Stumbling Stone” was placed in Gent, Graslei 14, for Karel Poffyn.

Karel Jozef (Charles Joseph) POFFYN, was born in Sint-Amandsberg on 25 October 1897 and died in Meppen-Versen on 6 December 1944, he was married to Emma Verdonck and had 2 sons, Jozef and Theophiel. He worked as an “auxiliary electrician” at the Telegraaf en Telefoon (R.T.T.) company in the Schippershuis on the Graslei in Ghent. He was a veteran and war volunteer of the First World War and a member of the National Fighters' Union (N.S.B.). He was injured in the eyes by a gas attack on the Yzer front, hence the dark glasses.

At the outbreak of the Second World War he brought office machines and money from the R.T.T. in safety. In July 1941 he joined the armed resistance through Gérard Willemot and became a soldier of the Secret Army, zone III, sector Ghent. He belonged to a sabotage group of refuge “Le Héron” under the command of Maurice Claeys (who died later at the same place and date). He had to go into hiding because of his activity. Their last assignment was to sabotage the German military headquarters in the R.T.T. building during the last week of August 1944, but he was previously arrested by the “Secret Field Police” (G.F.P.) on 19/08/1944. That night, 5 other R.T.T. employees were arrested. He was interrogated at the headquarters of the “Sicherheitspolizei und Sicherheitsdienst” (SIPO-SD), the Hubain villa on the corner of Krijgslaan and de Smet de Naeyerplein, and locked up in the Nieuwe Wandelen. He was transferred to Germany via Merksplas and stayed in the Neuengamme extermination camp, number 44,715. He was further transferred to the subcamp Meppen-Versen where he died on 6 December 1944.

His remains were buried with military honors in the plot of the Wester Cemetery in 1953 after a funeral mass in St. Peter's Church.