Alex Kurzem: a Jewish boy raised by the Nazis

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

"The youngest Nazi of the Reich" Alex Kurzem became a favorite hero for German propaganda. Few knew who he really was.

“I had to hide my identity all my life. I had to make sure that no one would know that I was a Jewish boy among the Nazis,”said Australian citizen Alex Kurzem, aka Ilya Galperin, half a century after the end of World War II.

For many years, none of his friends, or even close relatives, knew that once he, a Jew by birth, was a pupil and mascot of the SS unit.

An orphan

One day in October 1941, five-year-old Ilya witnessed a terrible picture: in his hometown of Dzerzhinsk near Minsk, along with hundreds of other Jews, the Nazis executed his mother, brother and sister. Hiding in the forest, he escaped reprisals, but, being completely alone, he was forced to go wherever his eyes would look.

Ilya wandered aimlessly through the forests, eating berries, spent the night in the trees so as not to get caught by the wolves, and escaped from the cold, removing the outer clothing from the dead soldiers. Knocking on the doors of houses, he sometimes received food and shelter, but no one wanted to let the boy in for a long time.

Such a life ended when, in one of the villages, Ilya came across a peasant who recognized him as a fugitive Jew. Having severely beaten, he took him to the school building and handed him over to the German unit stationed there. It was the 18th Latvian battalion of the Schutzmanschaft (policeman) "Kurzemes", involved in the fight against partisans and in punitive actions against the Jewish population in the Minsk region.

Preparing for death, Ilya turned to the soldier standing next to him: "Until you kill me, can I eat a piece of bread?" Having carefully looked at the boy, Corporal Jekabs Kulis took him aside and said that if he wants to survive, he should forever forget the fact that he is a Jew and pass himself off as a Russian orphan. In this status, he was accepted into the battalion.

"Combat" way

The Latvians invented a new name for the boy - Alex Kurzeme (in honor of the western region of Latvia - Kurzeme - the battalion itself was named). Since he did not remember the date of his birthday, it was “assigned” to him - November 18 (on this day in 1918, Latvia gained independence for the first time in history).

In the battalion, Ilya-Alex was mainly engaged in economic affairs: he cleaned the boots of the soldiers, made a fire, and brought water. Having received a uniform, a small gun and a small pistol, he became a real son of the regiment, a pupil and mascot of the unit.

Together with his battalion, Alex traveled all over Belarus, witnessing mass executions and brutal punitive operations. “I just had to watch what was happening,” Kurzem recalled: “I could not stop the war. I was taken by the people who committed all these murders. I couldn't do anything, nothing. I knew it was bad. I cried … Sometimes I regretted that I had not been shot with my mother."

Little Alex, however, was also involved in the battalion's criminal activities. To appease the Jews who were put on the carriages to be sent to the concentration camps, he handed out chocolates to them on the platform before boarding.

On June 1, 1943, the 18th Police Battalion was incorporated into the Latvian SS Volunteer Legion, and Kurzem changed his old uniform to a new one. "The youngest Nazi of the Reich" has become a frequent guest on the pages of newspapers and newsreels.

New life

When military luck turned away from Germany and the Latvian SS men switched from punitive actions to participation in military clashes with the Red Army, Alex was sent to the rear, to Riga. There he was adopted by the family of the director of the local chocolate factory, Jekabs Dzenis. Together with her, he first moved to Germany, and in 1949 - to Australia.

For many years, Alex Kurzem kept the circumstances of his life a secret. He told his family that he, a wandering orphan, had been picked up and adopted by a Latvian family.

When Alex revealed the unsightly details of his childhood in 1997, some of his friends turned their backs on him. Among the Jewish community in Melbourne, he was strongly criticized: he was accused of voluntarily joining the SS, as well as the lack of hatred of the Nazis.

“Hatred will not help me,” Kurzem-Halperin replied: “I am what I am … I was born a Jew, was raised by Nazis and Latvians, and married as a Catholic.”