Under the supervision of Soviet officers, German POWs carry the charred remains of Jews from the Kovno ghetto on a makeshift stretcher and lower them into a mass grave.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 81136

Photographer: George Kadish/Zvi Kadushin
Date: August 1944
Locale: Kaunas, Lithuania
Variant Locale: Kauen
Kovno
Kowno
Photo Designation: GHETTOS (MAJOR) -- KOVNO (Lithuania) -- Destruction/Aftermath -- Victims/Burial
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of George Kadish/Zvi Kadushin

Event History: The liquidation of the Kovno ghetto/concentration camp began on Saturday, July 8, 1944, three weeks before the Soviet liberation of the city. Approximately 6,100 Jews were transported over a six-day period to concentration camps: the women to Stutthof and the men to Dachau. Knowing that thousands failed to appear for the round-ups and likely remained hidden in bunkers, the SS ordered German troops to raze the former ghetto. Every house was blown up and the ruins doused with gasoline and incinerated. Thousands were either burned to death or shot trying to flee. The fires burned for a week, leaving a charred landscape of rubble and stone chimneys. Only approximately 100 Jews survived the liquidation.
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.
See Also https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005162.
Keyword: CORPSES
CORPSES (REMOVAL OF)
FORCED CONFRONTATION
GHETTO/OCCUPATION
HUMAN REMAINS
JEWS (LITHUANIAN)
KOVNO
MASS GRAVES
POWS (GERMAN)
Photo Source: USHMM (Restricted)

Copyright: Exclusively with provenance

Provenance: George Kadish/Zvi Kadushin
: Record last modified: 1998-05-27 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa11911

Search Our Collections