Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Kovno workers are searched by ghetto police at the Krisciukaicio Street entrance upon their return from forced labor outside the ghetto.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 70801

Search this record's additional resources, such as finding aids, documents, or transcripts.

No results match this search term.
Check spelling and try again.

results are loading

0 results found for “keyward

    Kovno workers are searched by ghetto police at the Krisciukaicio Street entrance upon their return from forced labor outside the ghetto.
    Kovno workers are searched by ghetto police at the Krisciukaicio Street entrance upon their return from forced labor outside the ghetto.

    Overview

    Caption
    Kovno workers are searched by ghetto police at the Krisciukaicio Street entrance upon their return from forced labor outside the ghetto.
    Date
    1942
    Locale
    Kaunas, Lithuania
    Variant Locale
    Kauen
    Kovno
    Kowno
    Photo Credit
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Eliezer Zilberis
    Event History
    In Kovno, as in other ghettos, slave labor was the justification for the ghetto's continued existence. Initially all male Jews between the ages of 17 and 60 and women between the ages of 17 and 47 were forced to work. Later these age limits were broadened. Shifts frequently lasted twelve hours and usually consisted of heavy, menial labor. Most Jews worked in labor brigades outside the borders of the ghetto. Other Jews found work within the ghetto in workshops for the manufacture and repair of products. Work shirking, though never eliminated, was punishable by prison sentence. Some paid underage workers known as "malachim" or angels to work in their stead. Every day thousands of Jews assembled at the ghetto's main gate, from which they were marched to a variety of worksites throughout the city. These included warehouses, depots, factories, meat-packing plants, farms, and military field hospitals and procurement offices. However, the largest brigade was sent to construct a military airport in the suburb of Aleksotas. Initially, one quarter of the ghetto and over half of the work force worked at the airfield, though this decreased with time. Workers walked to the airport in all types of weather without adequate clothing and footwear. There, they dug tunnels, hauled concrete, loaded and unloaded aircraft. The airfield brigade was not only the largest but also the least desirable work detail. A class system developed in the ghetto between those forced to work at the airfield and those who could find work elsewhere.

    See https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005174.
    See Also "Kauen Main Camp" in Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos Volume 1 Part A.

    Rights & Restrictions

    Photo Source
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
    Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
    Provenance: Eliezer Zilberis
    Central State Archives of Lithuania
    Copyright: Exclusively with source
    Published Source
    Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Little, Brown and Company - p.137

    Keywords & Subjects

    Record last modified:
    2004-03-22 00:00:00
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/pa1069088

    Download & Licensing

    In-Person Research

    Contact Us