Paul Sobol was born in Paris, France in 1926 into a working-class family of Polish-Jewish origin who had emigrated from Poland.

[3] The family survived more than four years under the occupation, but were denounced to the German authorities and arrested on 13 June 1944.

The entire family were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp on 31 July 1944 in the final convoy to leave Belgium.

[4] As he was being transported by rail on 25 April 1945, the train was attacked by Allied aircraft and Sobol escaped.

After initially being silent about his experiences, he became active in Holocaust education in Belgium from 1987 and spoke frequently in schools and was widely hailed as one of the foremost transmitters of memory (passeurs de mémoire) in the country by the time of his death.