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Kovno Home Page
Kovno Stories and Links
Levitan family of Kovno
Memoir: The Holocaust Recalled
First World War.com - Memoirs & Diaries - The Fall of Kovno
The Jews of Kovno
The story of Avraham Tory and his Kovno Ghetto diary
From Here To Kovno
Emma Goldman
Nosson Zvi Finkel
The Life of Simcha Frumkin
Kovno  "Kinder Hois" (orphanage)
Rav Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor of Kovna
Visas for life: UNEXPECTED RESCUE, 1940-1941
HaRav Mordechai Zuckerman, zt"l
Rabbi Avrahom Grodzensky
How I Survived the Kovno Ghetto
Rabbi Ephraim Oshry
Reb Shraga Frank and his wife, Rivka
Elul in Slabodka: From the Diary of Rabbi Avrohom Eliyahu Kaplan zt"l
Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Shulamit Rabinovitch
Rabbi Yitzchok Eizek Sher
HaRav Elizer Menachem Mann Shach (1895- 2001)
Rabbi Chaim Leib Shmulevitz: by Eliahu Meir Klugman
Rav Meir Halevi Chodosh, ZT"L
The Kovno Ghetto Orchestra (1943-1944)
Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna
Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein by D. Sofer
Rabbi Tobias Geffen
Zippora-Nehama-Safira: A Family Odyssey By Yvette Nahmia-Messinas
In Slobodker Yeshiva by Falk Zolf
Kovno looms over Slobodka by Falk Zolf
The Song is Interrupted by Falk Zolf
The World in Flames by Falk Zolf
The Kravetz Family
With a Rifle in My Hand and Eretz Yisrael in My Heart
The Musical family Stupel/ Hofmekler
Raja Schiff Shlom-nee Berkman
Dr. Moshe Langman
Testimony of Zvi - Hirsch Griliches
Testimony of Meri Michelson
Moisei Kopelman, former police chief of the Kovno ghetto
Fania Brantsovskaya
Prof. Uriel Leviatan - Biography in Hebrew
An Early Childhood Molded by the Holocaust
The Shulman Family of the Slabodka Yeshiva
Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995)
The Story of Yehuda Feigin
SHAPIRO, AVRAHAM DUBER KAHANE
Rabbi Avraham Dovber Shapira, son of Zalman Sender Kahana Shapira
Prof. Dov Levin - Chronological List of Publications & Synopses: 1959 -2005
Elchanan Elkes
NAPOLEON'S LITHUANIAN FORCES
Hope and Honor
The Life of Nina Finkelstein, a Survivor of Ghetto Kovno
The Story of Albert Beder
Luba Kadison and The Vilna Troupe (a.k.a. Vilner Troupe)
Sol Stein
Ella Silber
Arthur Pais
Nessy Marks
Hermann Minkowski
Zipora Pokempner
Benny Goodman
Aharon Barak
Ben Shehan
Israel Isidor Elyashev
ABRAHAM MAPU
Ludvic Lazarus (Ludwik Lejzer, Ludwik Łazarz) Zamenhof
Miriam Ben-Porat
Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna (1890 - 1969)
In the Anti-Nazi Underground of the Kovno Ghetto
The Craving for Resistance and its Realization
By: Prof. Dov Levin, Jerusalem 2005
In Those Days by Herzl Ben-Yehuda
Marcia Spies
Back to the River
Sam Schalkowsky (Shmuel Shalkovsky)
Avrom Akselrod
Aharon Amir (nee Lipec)
MOSHE BEN-OZER (GRUDSKI)
ZUNDEL GORDON
DAN LABANOVSKI
LEV BRAVERMAN
MEIR GECHT
MOSHE KRAVETZ STORY
YAAKOV VIZ – VIZGORDISKI STORY
SHLOMO GALPERIN Story
The 131 Boys from Kovno
Yehezkel Pularevich, Nachum Maryash, Shmariyahu Pustapetsky and Abraham Rohman,
Zionists from Kovno
Moshe Baram
Lea Goldberg (1911-1970)
The Jews of Kovno
Lithuanian Hypocrisy
The Story of Ephraim Gruzin
Lina Beresin of Kovno
The Music of Partisans of Vilna
Music in the Kovno Ghetto and Lithuania
Ziwa Alexander Katz, Holocaust survivor
The Holocaust in Lithuania, and Its Obfuscation, in Lithuanian Sources
Father Bronius Paukstys and his brother Juozas
Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Rabinowitz
Moshe Arnes
Major General Sidney Shachnow
Dr. Israel Isidor Elyashev
Dr. Joel Brotzkos
Tzemach Feldstein
Instead of Truth about the Holocaust – Myths about Saving Jews
Shmuel Yitzchak Hillman
"Mi'yarkete Tsafon" ("From the Ends of the Earth") - memoirs of Gitta Langleben-Klibansky
Echoes from a silent past
Eyewitness Meyshke Preys (Misha Preisas): Kovno (Kaunas), 23 June 1941
Tzemach Ben Zvi Feldstein
Ben Zion Black of Kovno
Shalom (Sholik) Kaplan (later Eilati)
Wisgardisky
The Brutskus/Bruckus Family
Bronislava Krištopavi?ien? Righteous Among the Nations
Meir Tobianski
Boris Schatz (1866–1932)
Julius Berman Remembers Uri Chanoch
The Cohen Family
The Chanoch Family
TOBIJAS JAFETAS'S STORY
Hermann Kallenbach
A first letter from a survivor; Dr. Nachum Levitan
Samuel Sadinsky, Dad loved Science & lived like he worked - committed to doing his best
Mystery pre-Holocaust photo trove turns out to be of family of US scholars
Avraham Tory nee Golub
The Varsavskis Family Album
MAY 7 1942: PREGNANCY AS A DEATH SENTENCE IN THE KOVNO GHETTO
Lithuania: Cemetery Work in Kaunas
The Elkes Family
Interview with Holocaust Survivor Shalom Eilati
Israel Kaplan and his wife Lea Greenstein 
Shlomith Frieda Flaum 1893-1963 
Notes by Ted Ashkenazy
The Virovitch Ginas Family
Yosef Achai (nee Sukastalisky- Kafkafi)
 
Click on Photos to Enlarge
ksl-#1: German troops advance towards Kovno. The sign in the photograph reads, Kaunas (Kovno), 98 kilometers.Credit: Lithuanian Photographic and Video Archives
click to read the Introduction http://www.ushmm.org/kovno/intro/intro.htm
ksl-#2: Smoke from German shelling billows over the city of Kovno, June 22-25, 1941. Credit: George Kadish, photographer, Beit Hatefutsoth, Israel
click to read the story of the Invasion http://www.ushmm.org/kovno/invade/invade.htm

ksl-#3:

Order #1" as printed in the Lithuanian Activist Front newspaper I
Laisve [To freedom], July 28, 1941. Credit: Lithuanian Central State
Archives, Vilnius
[translation]
Order No. 1
1. The Jewish population is not allowed to walk on the sidewalk. Jews
are to walk single file on the right side of the street.
2. The Jewish population is not allowed walk on the promenades and are
not allowed in any public parks. Likewise, the Jewish population is
not allowed to sit on public benches.
3. The Jewish population is not allowed to use any public
transportation such as taxis, coaches, buses, boats, and similar
vehicles of transportation. The proprietors and owners of all public
vehicles of transportation must post a visible notice on the vehicle
stating: "Jews Not Permitted."
4. Any violations of these orders will be severely punished.
5. These orders are to be enforced as of today. SA-Colonel Hans
Cramer, City Commissioner

ksl-#4: Moving into the Kovno ghetto. Credit: George Kadish, photographer, George Kadish, Florida
ksl-#5: Moving into the Kovno ghetto. Credit: George Kadish, photographer, Beth Hatefutsoth, Tel Aviv, Israel
ksl-#6: Carts loaded with the possessions of Kovno's Jews head towards the bridge to Slobodka while empty carts return to the city, July-August, 1941. Credit: Avraham and Pnina Tory, Israel
to read about it go to;
Ghettoization
http://www.ushmm.org/kovno/ghetto/ghetto.htm
ksl-#7: The Jewish Council. Chairman Elkes is seated third from left, and Vice-Chairman Leib Garfunkel is to his far right.Credit: Avraham and Pnina Tory, Israel. Photograph by George Kadish, Beth Hatefutsoth, Israel
Inside the Ghetto -- Jewish Council to read about it click;
http://www.ushmm.org/kovno/council/photo2.htm
ksl-#8: Jewish laborers at the Aleksotas airfield. Credit:YIVO
ksl-#9: The shoe-making workshop. Credit: Abrahm and Pnina Tory, Israel
ksl-#10: Girls in the ghetto sewing workshop. Credit:Kadish/JK
Inside the Ghetto -- Labor to read about it go to;
http://www.ushmm.org/kovno/labor/photo.htm
ksl-#11:Final Days
On October 26, 1943, the SS deported 2,709 persons from the ghetto. Those deemed fit for work were sent to harsh labor camps in northern Estonia, while children and the elderly were deported to Auschwitz. Few survived.Credit: George Kadish, Florida

ksl-#12:

Kovno ghetto Jews during the Estonian Deportations, October 1943. Credit: George Kadish, Florida

ksl-#13:

The ruins of Kovno Ghetto.Credit: George Kadish, photographer

ksl-#14:

George Kadish, lorida Esther Lurie, Deportation to a Labor Camp
pen and ink, 1943.Credit: Esther Lurie, Israel

ksl-#15:

Kovno ghetto in flames.Credit: George Kadish, photographer; Beth Hatefutsoth, Israel

ksl-#16:

Final muster of the Jewish Police before they were taken to Fort IX.Credit: George kadish, photographer, Beth Hatefutsoth, Israel
In an effort to obtain information about the ghetto's underground and about the locations of hidden bunkers, the Gestapo arrested and tortured some 130 Jewish policemen at Fort IX. 36 men are killed after refusing to cooperate, including Police Chief Moshe Levin and his assistants, Joshua Greenberg and Yehuda Zupowitz.
For the rest go to;
http://www.ushmm.org/kovno/real/final.htm

ksl-#17:

Mass Murder Einsatzgruppe member kills a Jewish woman and her child near Ivangorod, Ukraine. 1942. Credit: Jerzy Tomaszewski, Poland
Mobile killing units (Einsatzgruppen) followed the German army during its invasion of the Baltics and the western Soviet Union, first killing Jewish men, Soviet political commissars, and others considered racially or politically dispensable. Months after the invasion, Mobile killing units turned to the execution of women and children. Open air killings continued in areas of eastern Europe during 1942 and by the spring of 1943, Einstagruppen units A-D had killed over million persons. ....
For the rest go to;
http://www.ushmm.org/kovno/mass/photo.htm

ksl-#18:

The story ( in Hebrew) of Aharon Barak, Ph.D. who escaped from the
Kovno ghetto and lived with a non Jewish family. He is the president
of the Superior court in Israel;
http://www1.yadvashem.org/heb_site/heb_about_yad/whats_new/barak.html

ksl-#19:

Yaakov Shalom Svirski
Jakob Svirsky was born in Kowna, Lithuania in 1920 to Zalman and
Khaia Rivka. He was a student in the university and single. Prior to
WWII he lived in Kowna, Lithuania. During the war was in Kowna,
Lithuania. Jakob perished in Kowna, Lithuania on his birthday of 21 in
August of 1941. This information is based on a Page of Testimony
submitted on 03/10/1956 by his sister Dvora
for more details ( in Hebrew) go to Link

ksl-#20:The story of Uri and Dani Chanoch ( in Hebrew)

Link

ksl-#21:Kovno Ghetto DiaryWritten by: Dmitri Gelpernus

Published in Moscow, 1948

ksl-#22:

Story of Yerachmiel Siniuk and Yitzchak Fein who were saved by the Urbanas Family

Kovno

Levitan

Levitan

ksl-#23:

TOBIJAS JAFETAS AND CLASSMATES (PICTURE BELOW TAKEN IN 1939)
http://www.centropa.org/photo/tobijas-jafetas-and-classmates
This is the 4th grade of the Jewish elementary school where I studied. I am in the center, 2nd row, my friend Zandel is beside me. The 2nd on the left in the 2nd row is Tanur, Soloveichik is beside her, unfortunately, I don't remember their first names. I don't remember any other names. The photo was taken in Kaunas in 1939. 
I went to the preparatory class at the gymnasium where my brother Azriel also studied. Jews constituted about 30% of the total population of Kaunas, and there were several Jewish schools there: a Yiddish Jewish school, the technical Jewish gymnasium, the humanitarian gymnasium and a religious school. In my gymnasium the subjects were taught in Hebrew. Soon I started talking to my parents and my brother in Hebrew. I had Jewish friends. One of them, Zandel, was my classmate and so were the girls Tanur and Soloveichik. These were their last names; unfortunately, I don't remember their first names. Regretfully, our communication didn't last long. Zandel and Tanur perished during the occupation, and Soloveichik and her family were deported to Siberia. I don't know what happened to her. I also played with other children of different nationalities, and we got along very well. 
There were many Jewish organizations in Kaunas. I liked performances of the Jewish theater where we went with my class. I liked music and liked listening to the records my father played on the record player. I started learning to play the piano, when I was about five years old. We had a piano delivered from Germany. I didn't like playing it but preferred playing with my friends and Lev. I played table tennis for some time. There were Jewish organizations in Lithuania and in Kaunas. I didn't like Betar members, who I thought were too aggressive. Maccabi and Hashomer Hatzair were closer to me. There was another organization in Kaunas, which collected money to purchase land in Palestine, and for the construction of kibbutz communities and establishment of the Jewish state. There was a nice money box, where Mama and Papa always dropped change, in our living room. Every week a representative of this organization visited us. We opened the 'cannon' and he collected the money. 
Tobijas Jafetas
YEAR OF BIRTH: 1930
CITY OF BIRTH: Kaunas
COUNTRY NAME AT TIME OF BIRTH: Lithuania
OCCUPATION

AFTER WW II: Teacher of physics, mathematics

ksl-#24:

Levitan Story (Hebrew)