By: Shani Litwin

Kovno Ghetto

Kovno is located in central Lithuania

Pre World War II:Jewish Population of 35,00o to 40,000Major center of Jewish learning

Lithuanians developed strong anti-Semitic sentiment during Soviet control of Lithuania (1940)

Frequent pogromsPublic killings

When Germans were in power in Lithuania, anti-Semitism intensified

Many Jews fled during Soviet control and beginning of German invasion

Kovno; before ghetto establishment

July 10, 1941---remaining Jews ordered to move to Vilijampole (Slobodka)

The confined Jews were ordered to relocate to Kovno

Population of ghetto:Began with 25,000 Jews. By August, 1941 grew

to 29,000To reduce the populations there were series of

mass murders. -- The “Great Action” occurred on October 28-29,

1941. 9,2000 Jews (4,200 children) marched to Fort IX where they were shot.

Formation of Kovno Ghetto

Ältestenrat (Jewish Council) attempted to relieve the dire conditions

Active until the ghetto’s conversion to a concentration camp in 1943

Supervised several other offices (seen on next slide) to keep the ghetto in order

Main focus was to create secret archives to document and record the German crimes

Made yearbooks and collected office reports and records, diaries and artifacts

Most of the archives were destroyed after liberation

Organization within the ghetto

Ältestenrat organization chart

Artists: Inmate artists were commissioned by Ältestenrat to create maps,

signs, identification and ration cards. In addition, to document key events and street scenes

Music: Formed an orchestra and performed within the ghetto Employed by Jewish Ghetto Police

Education: Schools were ordered to be closed in 1942. Children were taught

“underground” to continue their edicationReligion:

Febuary, 1942 all religious and secular books were confiscated Despite restriction, religious Jews prayed in makeshift

synogogues and hid ceremonial objects and sacred texts and scrolls

Life in Ghetto

Photo of the ghetto's orchestra

Drawing by Esther Luria (main artist recorder) of street scene

As conditions worsened between 1943 and 1944 two underground movements joined forces to form the Jewish General Fighting Organization with the intent of defeating the Germans

Attempted to damage worksites and destroy German buildings

Ältestenrat supplied it with money and protection

Jewish Ghetto Police offered weapon trainingMore than 300 were successful in escaping

the ghetto to the outside forest surrounding the ghetto

Resistance in ghetto

Picture of Jewish partisans who were part of the Kovno ghetto resistance

When the Kovno ghetto was ordered to become a concentration camp on June 21, 1943, it began steadily deteriorating

October 26, 1943 was the first move to destroy the ghettoMany deported to Estonia and AuschwitzMore series of mass killings at Fort IX

Beginning July 8, 1943 the remaining Jews were being transported to other concentration camps in Germany

SS ordered German troops to blow up the ghetto, with the suspicion that Jews were hiding in underground bunkersDuring the destruction, most of the archives were destroyed

Destruction of ghetto

Ruins of a building in the ghetto after German detruction

By the end of the Holocaust, an estimated 500 Jews survived through escaping the Kovno ghetto or hiding in bunkers

2,500 survived the concentration camps in Germany

In Lithuania, only 8,000 to 9,000 Jews survived out of the prewar population of 235,000

Post World War II

 Klein, Dennis B. Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto. Boston: Little, Brown and, 1997. Print.

"Kovno." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 05 Feb. 2011. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005174>.

"Inside the Ghetto -- Jewish Council." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 05 Feb. 2011. <http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/kovno/council/council.htm>.

Kovno Ghetto - A Buried History. Perf. Sir Martin Gilbert. 2002. Videocassette.

Bibliography