Category:Kovno Boys (subject)

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Kovno Boys (see Holocaust Children Studies)

Overview

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, 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. At the camp two main selections progressively reduced their number. Some, including 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:

In addition, a few of those who at some stage got separated from the rest of the group managed to survive, notably:

  • Daniel Inbar, escaped from the train to Auschwitz and survived as a street child.
  • Yaakov Viz (Visgorditzki), escaped during the death march from Auschwitz in January 1945 and joined the Russian Army.

All the others perished, the majority of them in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.


Kovno Children.jpg

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 (Leo Zisman), Kalman Tsechenowski, Meir Gecht, Elizier Greiss, Mordechai Levitan, and Dan Lebanovski. (@USHMM)

History

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.

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

  Three 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
  • Kagan Moshe – deported to Melk concentration camp and presumably murdered there

The surviving boys stayed in Mauthausen and were then deported to the nearby Gunskirchen concentration camp with a death march:

  • 5. Feigyn Yehuda (Yehuda Feigin / Judelis Feiginas) (Oct 31, 1929)
  • 6. Eliezer Finkelstein
  • 7. Mejer Abramovic / Meir Abramovitz (May 3, 1929)
  • 9. Shmuel Gutner (oct 8, 1929)
  • 13. Rav Shmuel Gefen / Smueils Gefenas (June 4, 1930)]
  • 14. Yosef Paplisky / Jozef Popilski (Mar 3, 1929)
  • # Mordchai Gilinsky
  • # Dr. Abraham Klivansky
  • # Levine Jaccob (Jakobas Levinas) (Jan 3, 1930)
  • # Chuna Sher / Chone Seras (Nov 27, 1929) – gestorben
  • # Leib Zieman / Leib Zusman / Leibe Zismanas (Jun 3, 1928) - gestorben <OK>
  • # Gecht Meir - gestorben / Mejer Hecht (Aug 21, 1929) <OK>

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

+ <Mozes Kagan> (Sept 16, 1929)

+ <Hausa Sohamas> (Sept 29, 1929)

+ Kalman Tsechenowski (from Poland)

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

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.

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