He was paraded in front of another secret Jew, Hitler himself while he wore his cute little S.S. uniform.Alex Kurzem went to live in Australia in 1949, he had a secret that had weighed him doon for years he told no one not even his wife until 1997.
In 1941 in a village in Belarus the German army invaded. They lined up all the men in the town square and shot them, including Alex's father. His mother told him that they would soon be next. Alex was 5 or 6 and remembers that he didn't want to die so he ran away in the night to an over looking hill and waited till dawn, his mother, brother and sister were killed that day.
He went into the forest and survived by scavenging clothes off dead soldiers and begging for food at hooses, after 9 months he was handed in by a local man to the Latvian police who then later became a part for the German SS .
He thought they were going to kill him but a soldier who examined Alex and found him to be Jewish told the others that he was a Russian Orphan, his Aryan looks helped others believe it.
Alex was given a German uniform which included a little gun and did chores for the soldiers and kept up moral.
In 1941 in a village in Belarus the German army invaded. They lined up all the men in the town square and shot them, including Alex's father. His mother told him that they would soon be next. Alex was 5 or 6 and remembers that he didn't want to die so he ran away in the night to an over looking hill and waited till dawn, his mother, brother and sister were killed that day.
He went into the forest and survived by scavenging clothes off dead soldiers and begging for food at hooses, after 9 months he was handed in by a local man to the Latvian police who then later became a part for the German SS .
He thought they were going to kill him but a soldier who examined Alex and found him to be Jewish told the others that he was a Russian Orphan, his Aryan looks helped others believe it.
Alex was given a German uniform which included a little gun and did chores for the soldiers and kept up moral.
He starred in Nazi propaganda films and was used to lure Jews into cattle cars by handing out bars of chocolate, he also saw action on the Russian front. All the time he worried about the Germans finding out and shooting him or the Russians getting him and shooting him.
Look at the enjoyment on the faces of the soldiers as they play 'kick the Jew.'
After the war he lived with a Latvian family then moved to Australia and worked as a TV repair man and settled doon to start a family. He told them of his past in 1997 and went to Europe with his son to the village where he was born, they found out his real name was Ilya Galperin, and even found a film in a Latvian archive of Alex in full SS regalia.
You can't really blame the lad, his survival instincts took over and he did what he had to do. When you see something horrific happening to someone the last thing you want is that to happen to you.
I just thought this story was an interesting one and something to think about. A short film was made out of this story called 'The Mascot' directed by Lina Caneva in 2003.
17 comments:
This story sounds a lot like the movie Europa Europa...Without the propaganda films.
I suppose it does I'm sure there have been other cases of hidden identity.
I was General Belgrano's chimney sweep. I have never told anyone, until now. It feels so good to get it off my chest. I still have nightmares about it. He had the dirtiest fuckin' chimneys in Buenos Aires, fuckin' filthy they were.
Or the outstanding Russian film, Come and See, made by Elem Klimov, about the war time genocide in Belorussia through the eyes of a boy.
This story reminds me of Billy Lee Tipton (aka Dorothy Lucille Tipton) who was a jazz musician and a woman who lived like a man but very few knew, including his children, until he died in 1989. Survival of the most determined is a mighty animal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Tipton
I've just finished reading this book, loved it. It amamzes me what a human can go through and hang on to for so many years. Definately recommended reading.
Thanks for the film, recommendation, I'll look for it. We ask children to do too much oftentimes, but it's good to know he survived and had a family.
I was going to say that- Europa, Europa. Maybe it was based on him,although the boy was a lot older. Great post Knud.
eddie waring General Belgrano was a rude cunt.
conan drumm the Russians make films? its funny them crying about genocide, not like they did any.
fresh hell interesting tale or lack of a tail. I love those stories about people having relationships and not letting their partner touch them because they are a man/woman in hiding then 20 years later they go huh?
dai what use is a hard cunt? I'll cut ya you Welsh fucker.
kate yep there are different types of victims/survivors alright.
medbh A lot of other Jews aren't too fond of him but what can you do?
ubermouth not a great post a great story, I like showing Nazis as less than perfect and totally beatable.
...and THAT'S why I love you.
That is interesting. I fink oil ave a luke fur that mewvie.
That boys survival instincts were strong. Much to be admired. Not sure how a boy could stop anything, I can't imagine the conflict within him his whole life. Devastating.
FN is only saying she loves you so she can get into your pants.
at lest you know were you stand with nazis.
first nations I thought it was my big willy.
nokia stop speaking gaylick on my blog.
ms pool he could give in or not be so careful, I wonder if he ever thought about doing that or was the terror too great.
MJ why do you only say it when yer drunk?
jimmy against a wall is no place to stand.
Jews and other "Minderwertige" survived by camouflage. They just blended in - Allen made a film about this, forgot the title, one of his "small" films, but one of the best besides "Broadway Danny Rose". People tent to think of the Third Reich as a monolithic organized Block - it was organized chaos, survival of the fittest in bureaucratic forms. And the SS was an independent organization,do not forget this. I had an interview with an ss-rank and he told me that they hired an jewish cattle-trader, well knowing that he was a jew, he was from the same village ... From a certain point on, when the first/second generation of ss-men were killed, it degenerated to a kind of mercenary-organization, they were "soldiers of fortune" in the end.
Anyway there are cases of people that changed "personalities", right through the war. And afterwards, in the "opposite" direction. SS-men becoming jews - Eichmann learned Hebrew in the fifties - former ss-scientist vanishing and returning as "opositionelle" or emigrants ... It is fascinating what a human being is capable of.
I'm sorry I sat here reading this and couldn't get past one thing: shouldn't the title have read Hitler's Mascoot?
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