Daniel Chanoch (M / Lithuania / 1933), Holocaust survivor

Daniel Chanoch / Danilos Chenochas (M / Lithuania, 1933), Holocaust survivor

Uri Chanoch (M / Lithuania, 1928-2015), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Kovno Ghetto> <Stutthof> <Landsberg> <Dachau> <Auschwitz> <Death March> <Mauthausen> <Death March> <Gunskirchen> -- <Israel>

Biography

Daniel Chanoch, the younger brother of Uri Chanoch, was one of the Kovno Boys, liberated at Gunskirchen.

Daniel Chanoch (Danilos Chenochas) was born Feb 2, 1929 in Kovno, Lithuania.

USHMM Oral Interview

Daniel Chanoch, born in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania in 1933, discusses his childhood and family; Kovno and the Jewish community; the split between the Orthodox Jewish community in Slabodka (Vilijampole) and the others in the new town; the German entry and Russian retreat; life in the Kovno ghetto; his mother, her strength and how she influenced his life; hiding during actions within the ghetto; the lists of the Judenrat and how to avoid being listed; youth movement in the ghetto and the underground to which his brother belonged; his family being deported and his mother and sister being dropped off at Stutthof, while he and his father and brother went to camp Landsberg; a German officer taking him as a servant and working in the SS kitchen; being taken with the other children in trucks to Dachau; showers and decontamination and treatment; being taken by train to Birkenau; being taken to camp A and listening to the stories from Russian POWs; the selections; being taken to camp B and his work unloading carriages; life in the camp towards the end; being marched to a train transport in January 1945; arriving in Mauthausen and going to Zeltenlager; being marched to Sankt Florian, Austria in April 1945 and then to camp Gunskirchen; being taken to a camp in Hirshing, Austria; meeting up with the Jewish brigade; traveling with the brigade to Treviso, Italy, to Mestra, Italy; experiences in transit camps in Modena and Bologna, Italy, a sanitarium near Stresa, Italy, and a hospital in Milan, Italy; immigrating to Israel in 1946; and psychological effects from his Holocaust experiences.

Holocaust Studies in Haifa (8 November 2017)

This week in the Research Forum Holocaust Survivor Danny Chanoch spoke to Cohort VI to share his story of survival through solidarity. Danny was born in 1933 in Lithuania. He was nine years old when the Germans invaded. Danny recalled seeing the atrocities that accompanied the German occupation of Lithuania with his own eyes. Because of his blonde hair and Baltic looks, he was the only member of his family who was able to safely leave their home to buy food. Walking around Kovno as a young boy, Danny saw Jewish people being tortured on the street. At such a young age he had to put up a wall between him and what he saw happening. His duty was to get food for his family, and he was also unable to help.

In August of 1941 Danny and his family had been moved into the Kovno Ghetto. He survived a kinder aktion because his older brother, Uri, despite suffering severe beatings, refused to disclose his whereabouts. This was one of the many instances of solidarity in Danny’s story of survival.

In 1944 when the Germans began to evacuate the Kovno Ghetto, Danny, Uri and their father were deported to Dachau, and Danny’s sister and mother were sent to Stutthof. This was the last time that Danny saw his sister and mother. A few days later, Danny and 130 other children from the Kovno deportation were then sent to Auschwitz, where they worked dragging roll wagons full of victims’ possessions from the ramp to the storerooms. Danny experienced another case of solidarity at Auschwitz. When working with the wagons, if one of the boys was unwell or felt he was going to collapse, the others would give the struggling boy a better position so that the Nazis could not identify that they were weak, which saved them from their certain death.

The surviving members of the 131 children, including Danny, were then sent to Mauthausen. Another act of solidarity occurred on a death march. Anyone who collapsed or fell during the death march from weakness was shot. The 40 boys left from the 131 had helped and carried each other throughout the march to ensure their survival.

Eventually, Danny was liberated from Gunskirchen. After liberation, Danny and Uri were reunited in Italy and made their way to Eretz Israel in 1946. Danny, who grew up in a Zionist household, remembers that arriving in Eretz Israel and seeing his Israeli brothers and the Star of David on the flag was one of the greatest moments of his life.

As harrowing as his story is, it is a reminder that even through the worst times there were still moments of support and solidarity. Danny attributes every single survivor to acts of solidarity, stating: “There’s not a single survivor which survived without solidarity and without help.”