Kovno Boys

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 (two of them escaped from the transport). At the camp 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.

The group of 37 survivors at Gunskirchen included Kalman Arieli, Leib Braverman, Daniel Chanoch, Yehuda Feigin, Shlomo Galperin, Meir Gecht, Zundel Gordon, Dan Labanovski, Shlomo Levin, and Moshe Shoham. In addition, a few of those who at some stage got separated from the rest of the group managed to survive, notably, Moshe Ben-Ozer, Ralph Codikow, Wolf Galperin, David Inbar, Moshe Kravitz, Sol Lurie, and Yaakov Viz (Visgorditzki). All the others perished, the majority of them in the gas chambers 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. Meir Gecht is one of the children. (@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 David Inbar escaped from the train). The boys 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 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 (David 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.   Group of boys who were sent to Mauthausen:

• Haim Urka – murdered while being transported to Mauthausen concentration camp
• Yakov Shoham – murdered while being transported to Mauthausen concentration camp
• Kagan Moshe – deported to Melk concentration camp and presumably murdered there

Deported to Gunskirchen concentration camp in the course of the death march:

Kalman Arieli, Yaakov Viz

• Garon Aharon
• Chanoch Daniel
• Lebanovsky Daniel
• Levitan Mordechai
• Feigyn Yehuda (Yehuda Feigin)
• Finkelstein Eliezer
• Abramovitz Meir
• Braverman Leib
• Gutner Shmuel
• Gurvith Yehuda
• Galperin Shlomo
• Gordon Zundel
• Rav Gefen Shmuel
• < Finkelstein Eliezer >
• < Gordon Zundle >
• Paplisky Yosef
• Gilinsky Mordchai
• Dr. Klivansky Abraham
• Levine Jaccob
• Sher Chuna – gestorben
• Birman Frumke – gestorben
• Raz Yitzhak – gestorben
• Zusman Leib - gestorben
• Gecht Meir - gestorben
• Fein Yehuda – gestorben
• Shoham Moseh (Moshe) - gestorben
• Morchick Wolf – 1948 als Soldat in Israel gestorben
• Levin Shlomo - gestorben
• Miller Moshe – nach der Befreiung in Wels gestorben

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.