Shlomo Levin (M / Lithuania, 1931), Holocaust survivor
Shlomo Levin (M / Lithuania, 1931?), Holocaust survivor.
- KEYWORDS : <Lithuania> <Kovno Ghetto> <Dachau> <Kovno Boys> <Auschwitz> <Death March> <Mauthausen> <Death March> <Gunskirchen>
USHMM Oral Interview
Shlomo Levin, born in the early 1930s in Kovno, Poland (Kaunas, Lithuania), describes his well-educated parents; being in a Betar youth group; the Jewish observances in his family’s home; the Russians occupying Kovno; the Polish refugees arriving; changes in education; the German invasion; killings in the street at the Seventh Fort; moving into the ghetto in Slobodka; his father’s death; the several roundups of Jews who were then killed at the Ninth Fort (Devintasis fortas); learning to be a carpenter in 1942 in a workshop outside the ghetto; the liquidation of the ghetto in Vilna (Vilnius, Lithuania) in 1943 and his family there coming to Kovno to live with them; witnessing a hanging in the ghetto; the ghetto being transformed into a work camp in 1943; the liquidation of the ghetto in April of 1944; being sent to the Kaufering train station, then marching to Landsberg; being sent to Dachau a few days later with the other children; the transport to Auschwitz and arriving on July 31, 1944; working as a carpenter in Auschwitz; some children contracting scarlet fever; the Rosh Hoshanah selection carried out by Dr. Mengele when 60 to 75 children were murdered; the daily schedule; being transferred to D lager; his friendships with the Polish Jewish children; his different jobs in the camp; singing and humming in the camp; being sent on a death march; a bombing while they were on the train; arriving in Mauthausen and the terrible living conditions; cannibalism; going to Gunskirchen; liberation day and the aftermath; meeting an Israeli officer with the Jewish Brigade; going to Munich, Germany; being hospitalized until February; immigrating to Israel; dedicating his life to service in the Palmach, then in the tank corps, and finally the Israeli army; and getting married in 1957.