Difference between revisions of "Category:Kovno Boys (subject)"

Kovno Boys (see Holocaust Children Studies)

• See Death Marches to Gunskirchen

Overview

When in July 1944 the Kovno Ghetto was liquidated, the survivors were deported. The first stop was Stutthof, near Gdansk in Poland. The women and little children were taken off. They entered the camp. Some of them were immediately sent to their deaths, and some of them were sent to be exterminated in Birkenau several days later. Others were forced to work until they were murdered or died because of the harsh conditions. This was the place in which the boys from Kovno were separated from their mothers, sisters and little brothers. From there they continued on with their fathers to Landsberg camp in Germany.

Landsberg was a labor camp that was set up beside Dachau in 1944, for the underground airplane construction factory that was located there. A group of 131 boys (age 8 to 16) from Kovno arrived in Landsberg from Stutthof. The boys spent about a week in this camp. Afterwards they were separated from the adults and sent to Dachau. In the period of time between when the children were separated from the adults and removed from the camp, they were joined by one of the boys' older brother, the 17-year-old Wolf Galperin, who became their leader.

In Dachau the boys were placed in one large, clean wooden hut and took a shower. Dachau, however, was only a stopover on the train trip from Landsberg to Birkenau. Throughout the entire trip to there the children consolidated into an orderly group.

At the beginning of August, they were sent to Auschwitz. Two boy escaped from the transport; one of them, Daniel Inbar, managed to survive under false identity until liberation.

129 boys arrived at Auschwitz on August 1, 1944. They were not immediately sent to the gas chambers, but had a number tattooed on their arms and then they were taken to Lager [camp] A, the transit camp at Birkenau. Two main selections progressively reduced their number in September 1944, one on the eve of Rosh Hashanah and the second on Yom Kippur. The surviving boys were sent to forced labor in Lager D, another section of Birkenau. Several, including Wolf Galperin, got separated from the rest of the group and were sent to Buchenwald. At least one (Kalman Arieli) who was not originally selected as part of the 131 boys joined them from Dachau.

On January 18, 1945, 39 boys were forced into a death march to Mauthausen. Two died in the journey, 37 of them arrived in Mauthausen. They were not put to work. One of them was deported to Melk and died there. The remaining 36 were sent in mid-April to Gunskirchen, where on Aug 4?, 1945, they were liberated by American soldiers.

Survivors

Escaped from the train to Auschwitz

• Daniel Inbar -- survived as a street child.

Sent to Buchenwald

• Yaakov Viz (Visgorditzki), escaped during the death march from Auschwitz in January 1945 and joined the Russian Army.

• Wolf Galperin

• Moshe Ben-Ozer (Grudski), liberated at Buchenwald (April 11, 1945).
• Ralph Codikow, liberated at Buchenwald (April 11, 1945).
• Moshe Kravitz (Moshe Kravec), liberated at Buchenwald (April 11, 1945).
• Sol Lurie, liberated at Buchenwald (April 11, 1945).
• Ivar Segalowitz, liberated at Buchenwald (April 11, 1945).

Sent to Gunskirchen

• Leib Braverman (1929)
• Daniel Chanoch (1933)
• Yehuda Feigin (1931)
• Shlomo Galperin (1931)
• Meir Gecht (1929-2011)
• Zundel Gordon (1929)
• Jehuda Gurvic (1929)
• Dan Labanovski (1933)
• Shlomo Levin (1931?)
• Jacob Lewin (1932)
• Moshe Shoham (1929-2013)
• + Kalman Arieli (1928), who had joined the group only later at Auschwitz.

Pictured in the center is Max Wolfson, an American Jewish liberator. He poses with six "Kovno Boys" in the Gunskirchen concentration camp after Liberation. The six children are (from the right to the left): Leib Zieman, Kalman Tsechenowski, Meir Gecht, Elizier Greiss, Mordechai Levitan, and Daniel Lebanovski. (@USHMM)

History

• 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 Shlomo Galperin's 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 him as the leader of the group.

129 boys arrived in Auschwitz on August 1, 1944 (two of them including Daniel Inbar escaped from the train). The boys were not immediately sent to the gas chambers. As an organized group, they passed the selection. 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. Around 70 members of the original group were sent to the gas chambers. Others, including Wolf Galperin, were also taken away to other camps. Galperin survived 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 USHMM picture

Report (in German)

In the summer of 1941, the SS established the Kauen ghetto in Kaunas (Lithuania). September 1943 was converted into a concentration camp. On July 14, 1944 it was Kauen concentration camp was dissolved and the prisoners who were still alive moved to it Deported to the Stutthof concentration camp. Women and small children stayed in Stutthof concentration camp, while men and older boys in the concentration camp Landsberg, a satellite camp of the Dachau concentration camp (Landsberg / Kaufering warehouse complex). During a “morning roll call” in the concentration camp Landsberg, the SS selected a group of 131 boys between the ages of 11 and 15 who were separated from other concentration camp inmates and guarded. This group was ins Dachau concentration camp transferred to where the boys found their cohesion and mutual Developed solidarity. Wolf Galperin, who was in the Landsberg subcamp with the goal When he came to help his younger brother, he became the coordinator of the group Solidarity. The group was deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Two boys managed to escape during the transport, one of the two (Daniel Inbar) survived the war. In On the night of August 31st to September 1st, 1944, the group of now 129 boys joined one organized, joint entry into the extermination camp, which the SS surprisingly was allowed. So organized cohesion saved them younger among them before selection and assassination. During their imprisonment in Extermination camp Auschwitz / Birkenau, two thirds of the group were murdered. In the course of the death marches due to the dissolution of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp the group was separated. Most of the group was sent to a concentration camp Mauthausen and a small part of the group were deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp and the rest were separated from the groups. The group that went to Mauthausen concentration camp was deported, was driven to Althamer and from there by train to Mauthausen. Two were killed during the transport. In the concentration camp Mauthausen, the surviving concentration camp prisoners continued to show their solidarity was an essential factor in their will to survive. The commander of the Mauthausen concentration camp decided on April 14, 1945 that the prisoners who were im Tent camps were interned in Mauthausen, in the Gunskirchen concentration camp - one of the 49 satellite camps of the Mauthausen concentration camp - should be transferred. The The group of boys who had been interned in the tent camp was thus transferred to another Death march driven. The Gunskirchen satellite camp served as a reception camp for Jews Inmates conceived. A few days before the liberation, prisoners were sent to the satellite camp Gunskirchen transferred with the order to bury the corpses in a makeshift manner. Still was the liberation camp littered with dead prisoners. The US 71st Infantry Division occupied Gunskirchen on May 4, 1945, on May 5, 1945 there were more than 1,300 US soldiers quartered in the school and the prisoner detachment there was liberated. The warehouse in Forest was only discovered these days. During the liberation, the US soldiers 5,419 survivors, approx. 3,000 had left the camp before the arrival of the US troops, registered. Between 2,700 and 5,000 prisoners in the Gunskirchen subcamp have her Lost life. With regard to transport lists and change reports, that is Gunskirchen satellite camp is a special case because, in contrast to the other satellite camps of the Mauthausen concentration camp these did not exist and were therefore reconstructed. Transports from Mauthausen concentration camp to Gunskirchen concentration camp can be obtained from records of the gendarmerie services as well Contemporary witness reports of the local population can be proven. In the sub-camp Gunskirchen may have been interned between 12,000 and 15,000 prisoners. After the liberation of the Gunskirchen concentration camp, the survivors were the "131 boys" in the area around Wels supplied by the "US Army" or in DP camps (DP = Displaced Person) accommodated. The majority of the surviving boys faced the "Jewish Brigade" and so managed to come to Israel after the liberation. One of these 131 boys is Daniel Chanoch. He survived six concentration camps. His Parents and his sister were murdered by the National Socialists. At the end of the war he was discovered by a Jewish brigade that brought him to Israel. On the way after Israel he met his brother Uri in Italy, who also survived. His brother Uri saw Daniel for the last time in the Landsberg concentration camp. His brother Uri died in the night of September 1st to 2nd, 2015. It's a big one for Daniel Chanoch Concern to pass on his testimony about the Holocaust and for a "never again" to appeal.

Boys sent to Mauthausen and Gunskirchen

  Two boys died during the Death March to Mauthausen:

• Haim Urka – murdered while being transported to Mauthausen concentration camp
• Yakov Shoham – murdered while being transported to Mauthausen concentration camp

The surviving boys stayed in Mauthausen.

• Mozes Kagan / Moshe Kagan (Sep 16, 1929) <YES> – deported to Melk concentration camp and presumably murdered there

The others were deported to the nearby Gunskirchen concentration camp with a death march: <24 of them are in the Mauthausen records>

• 1. Aharon Garon

• 2. Daniel Chanoch / Daniel Chanoch / Danilos Chenochas (Feb 2, 1929) <YES>

• 3. Lebanovsky Daniel / Daniel Kabinowski / Daniel Labanauskas (Jan 4, 1929) <YES>

• 4. Mordechai Levitan / Motel Levitanas (Apr 11 or 21, 1930) <OK> <YES>

• 5. Feigyn Yehuda (Yehuda Feigin / Judelis Feiginas) (Oct 31, 1929) <YES>

• 6. Eliezer Finkelstein

• 7. Mejer Abramovic / Meir Abramovitz (May 3, 1929) <YES>

• 8. Braverman Leib / Leo Brawermanas (Jan 16, 1929) <YES>

• 9. Shmuel Gutner (Oct 8, 1929) <YES>

• 10. Yehuda Gurvith / Jehuda Gurvic (Mar 20, 1929) <YES>

• 11. Galperin Shlomo / Slioma Galpernas (Dac 15, 1929) <YES>

• 12. Zundel Gordon (Sept 30, 1929) <YES>

• 13. Rav Shmuel Gefen / Smueils Gefenas (June 4, 1930) <YES>

• 14. Yosef Paplisky / Jozef Popilski (Mar 3, 1929) <YES>

• # Mordchai Gilinsky

• # Abraham Klivansky / Abraham Klavanskis (Mar 25, 1929) <YES>

• # Levine Jaccob (Jakobas Levinas) (Jan 3, 1930) <YES>

• # Chuna Sher / Chone Seras (Nov 27, 1929) – gestorben <YES>

• # Frumke Birman – gestorben

• # Yitzhak Raz – gestorben

• # Leib Zieman / Leib Zusman / Leibe Zismanas (Jun 3, 1928) - gestorben <OK> <YES>

• # Gecht Meir - gestorben / Mejer Hecht (Aug 21, 1929) <OK> <YES>

• # Yehuda Fein – gestorben

• # Moshe Shoham (Moshe) - gestorben

• # Wolf Morchick – 1948 als Soldat in Israel gestorben

• # Levin Shlomo / Sloma Levin (Jan 14, 1929) - gestorben <YES>

• # Moshe Miller – nach der Befreiung in Wels gestorben
• Leib Miller (Sep 5, 1929) <YES>

+ Elizier Greiss / Lejzer Grejs> (Jan 20, 1929) <OK> <YES>

+ <Mozes Kagan> (Sept 16, 1929) <YES>

+ <Solm Pelicas (Aug 3, 1928) <YES>

+ <Hausa Sohamas> (Sept 29, 1929) <YES>

+ Kalman Tsechenowski / Kalman Ciechanowski (from Bialystok, Poland) (Nov 1, 1929) <YES>

+ Kalman Abramovic / Kalman Arieli (Nov 10, 1928) <YES>

What is impressive about the “group of 131 boys” is the close contact they have with each other was held. The mutual help and care, the perseverance and the common resistance is an example of solidarity among children in concentration camps that saved the lives of some of the group.

Kovno Boys, Victims of the Holocaust

Perished at Auschwitz

• Alperowitz Avraham (b. March 31, 1931)
• Astajek Yaakov
• Astrodomov Y. L.
• Atlas Ami (b. July 5, 1932)

• Berman David (b. May 28, 1930)
• Birman Efraim (b. March 1, 1929)
• Bloch Yitzhak
• Blumberg Yoel (b. May 1, 1930)
• Braun Yitzhak (b. November 29, 1931)
• Burek Yosef (b. February 17, 1928)

• Chait Feliks

• Disler Yakel (b. August 13, 1930)

• Eidelman Yaakov (b. July 16, 1930)

• Feivuš Abba
• Fiš Hirsh
• Fort Zalman (b. March 13, 1930)
• Fridenberg Menachem (b. July 12, 1931)
• Fridman Pavel
• Fridman Yaakov (b. June 14, 1932)

• Gavronski Naftali
• Gempel Bezalel (b. July 25, 1930)
• Gempel Shimon (b. January 15, 1930)
• Gerber Motel (b. March 8, 1930)
• Gerson Yehoshua (b. January 10, 1930)
• Geselson Kushel (b. July 9, 1932)
• Gilinski Melech (b. April 13, 1930)
• Goldšmit Leib (b. May 8, 1930)
• Golub Avraham (b. December 2, 1930)
• Greišpul Marius (b. September 8, 1929)
• Grinstein Hune (b. May 5, 1931)
• Gutner Wolf
• Gu?anski Gershon (b. November 14, 1930)

• Hof Shlomo (b. January 22, 1930)

• Janovitz Meir (b. December 28, 1932)

• Kagan Moshe (b. September 16, 1930)
• Kagan Reuven (Henrik) (b. November 5, 1931)
• Kamber Moshe (b. December 1, 1930)
• Kamen?ik Nahme
• Kanovitz Haim (b. June 6, 1928)
• Kaplan Shlomo (b. March 12, 1931)
• Karokin Leib (b. May 1, 1930)
• Katz David (b. December 4, 1931)
• Kaufman Eliezer
• Klikovitz Shimon (b. February 26, 1930)
• Kobel Yosef (b. June 15, 1928)
• Kopelman Shmuel (b. December 16, 1936)
• Kopelov Hune
• Krasienišok Leib (b. July 2, 1934)
• Kremer Aharon
• Kubilkovski Yaakov
• Kurtzer Yosef (b. November 29, 1929)

• Lanzman Haim (b. June 10, 1930)
• Lekert David (b. May 21, 1928)
• Lipkovitz Yitzhak (b. December 10, 1930)
• Luria Heinrich (b. February 17, 1931)
• Luria Leo (b. April 27, 1929)

• Marijaš Yisrael (b. September 15, 1932)
• Marshak Motel
• Mašianski Daniel (b. September 15, 1929)
• Mator Yisrael (b. July 17, 1931)
• Melnik Leib
• Melnik Pesach
• Milner Shmuel

• Ozoras Abba (b. February 13, 1930)

• Paimau Moshe (b. July 18, 1930)
• Pavrovski Elia (b. July 23, 1930)
• Prova Nahum

• Reznicki Shmerl
• Rochelson Boris (b. October 9, 1930)
• Rozenblat Meir (b. March 24, 1932)
• Rozenblum Ivsai (b. July 7, 1929)

• Sanovski Yosef (b. February 2, 1931)
• Schuster Yitzhak
• Schwartz Reuven (b. January 3, 1930)
• Schwartz Shmuel (b. January 19, 1932)
• Shapira Moshe
• Shoham Yaakov (b. September 29, 1929)
• Škliar Yaakov
• Sneider Yehoshua (b. September 9, 1929)
• Spitz Haim (b. September 26, 1930)
• Steinbek Michael (b. December 28, 1932)
• Šverin Yaakov

• Tarshish Haim (b. April 1, 1929)

• Valet Zosia

• Zeidel Lapid (b. February 11, 1932)
• Zitel Leib (b. January 16, 1929)

Died during the Death March to Mauthausen

• Haim Urka – murdered while being transported to Mauthausen concentration camp
• Yakov Shoham – murdered while being transported to Mauthausen concentration camp