Holocaust History

Lesson 4: The Ghettos

Kovno Ghetto

When Lithuania was invaded on June 22, 1941, Jewish citizens throughout the country were rounded up and placed in ghettos. One of the largest Lithuanian ghettos was in the city of Kovno, an industrial center which lies just 80 kilometers from the German border.

Kovno is located at the intersection of the Neman and Neris rivers and was named after the Lithuanian Prince Koinas when it was first settled in 1030. Kovno is both the Russian and Yiddish spelling and pronunciation, but it is written and said as Kuanas in Lithuanian. It was the Lithuanian capital between 1920-1939, and the home to approximately 160,000 people, a quarter of who were Jews. Among these Jews were several renowned scholars who established Hebrew schools such as the famous Slobodka Yeshiva which had augmented the city's reputation as an important cultural center.

When the Nazis set up the ghetto they also spread Anti-Semitic propaganda which helped inflate the Lithuanian disdain for the Jews. Many Lithuanians saw the Germans as liberators, and the propaganda associated the Russian-speaking Jews with the Soviet occupation and made the Jews a symbol of Stalin's unpopular rule. Additionally, rules were implemented which stifled the Jew's daily activities. One example was, "Order No. 1, signed by Oberführer SS Kramer, the "German commissar of the city of Kauen" declares,

1. Jewish population is forbidden to walk along city pavements. Jews must walk on the right edge of a pavement one behind the other.

While in the ghetto all groups of Jews banded together for support and an interior society was created. Leadership came from Doctor Elkhanan Elkes of the Jewish Council of the Elders. Rabbi Schmukler spoke to the Jewish community about Elkes' appointment,

How terrible in our position that we are not offering the revered Dr. Elkes the respected position of head of the Jewish Community of Kovno, but the shameful and humiliating one of "Head of the Jews," who is to represent us before the Germans. But please understand, dear and beloved Dr. Elkes, that only to the Nazi murderers will you be "Head of the Jews"; in our eyes you will be the head of our Community.

As the Germans required everyone in the ghetto over the age of 16 to work at factories supporting their war effort, the Council decided who was fit for which job. Additionally, the Council helped ration the limited food supplies and organize resistance groups.

One part of the resistance was a secret job undertaken by artists, writers, and photographers within the ghetto who gathered information, made maps and took photos and other material to document the events and life in the ghetto. This material was placed in containers which were hidden and buried for preservation of the record. This was a phenomenal accomplishment, and these records remain today and provide an incredible account of the ghetto. Take time to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's online exhibit.

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