| Abba |
The secret history of the Nazi mascot
By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Melbourne
Alex Kurzem came to Australia in 1949 carrying just a small brown briefcase, but weighed down by some harrowing psychological and emotional baggage.
Tucked away in his briefcase were the secrets of his past - fragments of his life that he kept hidden for decades.
In 1997, after raising a family in Melbourne with his Australian bride, he finally revealed himself. He told how, at the age of five, he had been adopted by the SS and became a Nazi mascot.
His personal history, one of the most remarkable stories to emerge from World War II, was published recently in a book entitled The Mascot.
"They gave me a uniform, a little gun and little pistol," Alex told the BBC.
"They gave me little jobs to do - to polish shoes, carry water or light a fire. But my main job was to entertain the soldiers. To make them feel a bit happier."
Painful memories
In newsreels, he was paraded as 'the Reich's youngest Nazi' and he witnessed some unspeakable atrocities.
But his SS masters never discovered the most essential detail about his life: their little Nazi mascot was Jewish.
"They didn't know that I was a Jewish boy who had escaped a Nazi death squad. They thought I was a Russian orphan."
His story starts where his childhood memories begin - in a village in Belarus on 20 October 1941, the day it was invaded by the German army.
"When the shooting stopped I had no idea where to go so I went to live in the forests, because I couldn't go back. I was the only one left "
"I remember the German army invading the village, lining up all the men in the city square and shooting them. My mother told me that my father had been killed, and that we would all be killed."
"I didn't want to die, so in the middle of the night I tried to escape. I went to kiss my mother goodbye, and ran up into the hill overlooking the village until the morning came."
That was the day his family was massacred - his mother, his brother, his sister.
"I was very traumatised. I remember biting my hand so I couldn't cry out loud, because if I did they would have seen me hiding in the forest. I can't remember exactly what happened. I think I must have passed out a few times. It was terrible."
False identity
"When the shooting stopped I had no idea where to go so I went to live in the forests, because I couldn't go back. I was the only one left. I must have been five or six."
"I went into the forest but no-one wanted me. I knocked on peoples' doors and they gave me bits of bread but they told me to move on. Nobody took me in."
He survived by scavenging clothes from the bodies of dead soldiers.
After about nine months in the forest, a local man handed him over to the Latvian police brigade, which later became incorporated in the Nazi SS.
That very day, people were being lined up for execution, and Alex thought he, too, was about to die.
"There was a soldier near me and I said, 'Before you kill me, can you give me a bit of bread?' He looked at me, and took me around the back of the school. He examined me and saw that I was Jewish. "No good, no good," he said. 'Look I don't want to kill, but I can't leave you here because you will perish.
"'I'll take you with me, give you a new name and tell the other soldiers that you are a Russian orphan.'"
Joining the circus
To this day, Alex Kurzem has no idea why Sergeant Jekabs Kulis took pity on him. Whatever his motives, it certainly helped that Alex had Aryan looks. And together, they kept the secret.
"Every moment I had to remind myself not to let my guard down, because if ever anyone found out, I was dead. I was scared of the Russians shooting me and the Germans discovering I was Jewish. I had no-one to turn to."
Young Alex saw action on the Russian front, and was even used by the SS to lure Jewish people to their deaths.
Outside the cattle trains which carried victims to the concentration camps, he handed out chocolate bars to tempt them in.
Then, in 1944, with the Nazis facing almost certain defeat, the commander of the SS unit sent him to live with a Latvian family.
Five years later, he managed to reach Australia. For a time, he worked in a circus and eventually became a television repair man in Melbourne.
All the time, he kept his past life to himself, not even telling his Australian wife, Patricia.
"When I left Europe I said 'forget about your past. You are going to a new country and a new life. Switch off and don't even think about it.'
"I managed to do it. I told people I lost my parents in the war, but I didn't go into detail. I kept the secret and never told anyone."
It was not until 1997 that he finally told his family, and along with his son, Mark, set about discovering more about his past life.
After visiting the village where he was born, they found out his real name was Ilya Galperin, and even uncovered a film in a Latvian archive of Alex in full SS regalia. |
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| Jeton |
| fucked up shit, reminds me of that biopic "Europa Europa"... |
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| Ass Boil |
Amazing.
It made me think of my buddy who is American of mexican heritage, but he is CONSTANTLY mistaken for a muslim.
A few months after 9/11 we were fishing in Nebraska, we stopped at a diner and we both ordered burgers and both asked for medium rare. The burgers came out, mine was cooked right, but my buddy's was so fucking charred it was almost a piece of charcoal......
After laughing my ass off for 10 minutes we paid the bill and got out of there....
Makes you wonder how bad things would get in this country in a situation similar to then. |
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| Abba |
Quote: Originally posted by Ass Boil
Amazing.
It made me think of my buddy who is American of mexican heritage, but he is CONSTANTLY mistaken for a muslim.
A few months after 9/11 we were fishing in Nebraska, we stopped at a diner and we both ordered burgers and both asked for medium rare. The burgers came out, mine was cooked right, but my buddy's was so fucking charred it was almost a piece of charcoal......
After laughing my ass off for 10 minutes we paid the bill and got out of there....
Makes you wonder how bad things would get in this country in a situation similar to then. |
There is something ugly in America that lurks under the surface which is rarely discussed, but if the right circumstances came about, would be unleashed upon our Nation.
A few years ago, my sister, who is a practising Muslim and wears the hijab, was chased for about 15 minutes on the highway. She had her 1 year old son in the back seat, and she was driving her Toyota Corolla at the time. The dude who was harrassing her was in a truck, would clearly see a child in the back seat, and tried to run her off the road anyway.
It was the middle of the day, on a highway on Long Island, and this guy was driving his Bronco around her, screaming curses, laying on his horn, and pretty much scaring the crap out of her.
She called the cops, and luckily, a State Trooper pulled up and got the asshole to stop and arrested him.
My sister and I were both born here, and are American as can be, and yet, simply because of her dress, she was almost killed by some shithead douchebag. That's the part of America that's kept under wraps, and frankly, it's disgusting.
We have to be very careful, because to demonize an entire group of people for no real reason is beyond inhuman; it's Nazi. The Mexicans and other illegals are lucky so far that they haven't faced en masse American stupid wrath. |
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| Stickman |
Quote: Originally posted by Abba
There is something ugly in America that lurks under the surface which is rarely discussed, but if the right circumstances came about, would be unleashed upon our Nation.
A few years ago, my sister, who is a practising Muslim and wears the hijab, was chased for about 15 minutes on the highway. She had her 1 year old son in the back seat, and she was driving her Toyota Corolla at the time. The dude who was harrassing her was in a truck, would clearly see a child in the back seat, and tried to run her off the road anyway.
It was the middle of the day, on a highway on Long Island, and this guy was driving his Bronco around her, screaming curses, laying on his horn, and pretty much scaring the crap out of her.
She called the cops, and luckily, a State Trooper pulled up and got the asshole to stop and arrested him.
My sister and I were both born here, and are American as can be, and yet, simply because of her dress, she was almost killed by some shithead douchebag. That's the part of America that's kept under wraps, and frankly, it's disgusting.
We have to be very careful, because to demonize an entire group of people for no real reason is beyond inhuman; it's Nazi. The Mexicans and other illegals are lucky so far that they haven't faced en masse American stupid wrath. |
That sux, but very true. I remember in the week or so after 9/11 I was in my car with my gf at the time. She is half Spanish and half white, long dark hair, not particularly ethnic looking. I'm a laid back guy, with brown hair and don't look like any particular ethnicity either (people sometimes ask if I'm Hispanic or Italian).
For some odd reason a car load of stupid rednecks pulled up to us and started screaming how it was people like us who let this (9/11) happen. I still have no idea what the fuck that meant. We both looked at each other and wondered if it's possible to be so stupid in this world.
It's like the end of the great Chekov story "The Nincompoop" where the narrator asks himself, "is it possible in this world for a person to be such a nincompoop? Then I looked in her eyes and realized, yes, it is possible." (paraphrase) |
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| Ass Boil |
Couldn't agree more, Abba. We ALL come from immigrants in the US.
What these people should worry about is after ridding the world of people who don't look like them, that the crosshairs are then turned on people with low IQs..... |
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| Harleyb0y |
| interesting story |
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