Difference between revisions of "Kovno Boys"

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The '''Kovno Boys''' were a group of 131 boys (age 8 to 16) from the [[Kovno Ghetto]] who in July 1944 were separated from their parents after the liquidation of the ghetto. The boys found their leader in the 17-year-old [[Wolf Galperin]]. At the beginning of August, 129 of them ended in Auschwitz, where two main selections progressively reduced their number. [[Wolf Galperin]] also got separated from the rest of the group. On January 18, 1945, the remaining 39 boys were forced into a death march to [[Mauthausen]] and then in mid-April to [[Gunskirchen]], where 37 boys were liberated by American soldiers.
#REDIRECT [[Category:Kovno Boys (subject)]]
 
The group of 37 survivors at [[Gunskirchen]] included [[Kalman Arieli]], [[Leib Braverman]], [[Daniel Chanoch]], [[Yehuda Feigin]], [[Meir Gecht]], [[Zundel Gordon]], [[Dan Labanovski]], [[Shlomo Levin]], [[Moshe Shoham]], and [[Yaakov Viz]]. Only a few of those who got separated from the rest of the group, notably [[Moshe Kravitz]] and [[Wolf Galperin]], managed to survive. All the others perished, the majority of them in the gas chambers at [[Auschwitz]].
 
 
[[File:Kovno Children.jpg|500px]]
 
Pictured in the center is Max Wolfson, an American Jewish liberator. He poses with six "Kovno Boys" in the Gunskirchen concentration camp after Liberation. [[Meir Gecht]] is one of the children. (@USHMM)
 
== History ==
 
* [http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/kovno/kovno_pages/kovno_stories_131.html The 131 Boys from Kovno]
 
In July 1944 the Kovno Ghetto was liquidated. All remaining inhabitants, including children were sent by train to Stutthof, Poland. There the women (and girls and smaller children) were separated from the men (and older boys). While the women were taken off, the men remained on the train and were transported to Landsberg, Germany.
 
At Landsberg, a group of 130 boys (age 8 to 16) was separated from the adults. They were joined by one of the boys' older brother, the 17-year-old [[Wolf Galperin]], who managed to smuggle into the group. The boys were sent to Dachau and after seven days, to Auschwitz.
 
Throughout the entire trip from Landsberg to Auschwitz, the boys consolidated into an orderly group. The boys attributed this consolidation to Wolf Galperin. From Dachau on everyone related to Galperin as the leader of the group.
 
The group of 131 boys arrived in Auschwitz on August 1, 1944. They were not immediately sent to the gas chambers. Consequently they were sent to have a number tattooed on their arms with sequential numbers B-2774 to B-2902 (129) and then they were taken to Lager [camp] A, the transit camp at Birkenau. They were used as “human horses” hitched to wagons carrying items from place to place. The children formed a cohesive group and gave each other vital support.
 
Two selections were carried out in September 1944, one on the eve of Rosh Hashanah and the second on Yom Kippur. 90 members of the original group were removed from the camp and never seen again. [[Wolf Galperin]] himself was also taken away, surviving in forced labor and death marches until he was liberated on May 2, 1945. Thirty-nine boys were left alive after the selections, and were sent to forced labor in Lager D, another section of Birkenau.
 
Then, on January 18, 1945 the Death March began.
 
Thirty-seven of the boys in the group arrived at Mauthausen near the end of January 1945. In contrast to the other camp inmates, the boys of the group were not put to work. During their time there they were transferred to several places within the camp. They remained there until the middle of April 1945; at that time they were taken on another march to Gunskirchen, where they remained until Liberation.
 
* See [https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1142980 USHMM picture]

Latest revision as of 10:52, 15 September 2020

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