- Alex Kurzem
Alex Kurzem (born Ilya Galperin in
Belarus , 1936) is anAustralian television repairman. He has three children with wife Patriacia (died 2003). Kurzem immigrated fromLatvia to Australia in 1949.Kurzem, whose parents were Jewish, was orphaned during the
Second World War at 5 years old. After weeks or months of living in the forests and begging for food (the dates of his escape and later rescue are not certain), he was saved from certain death by Latvian officer SergeantJekabs Kulis . While being lined up for execution, Kulis took an interest in Kurzem and provided him with a false identity to hide his Jewish heritage. Latvian and German soldiers knew him as a Russian orphan.Throughout his childhood, Kurzem appeared in Nazi propaganda films as an Aryan mascot. He also handed out chocolates to other Jews to calm them as they waited for the trains that would take them to the concentration camps.
In 2007, Alex's son Mark Kurzem published a book, entitled "The Mascot", which detailed his father's childhood among the Nazi SS. Alex had never told his wife or sons that he was Jewish.
ee also
Solomon Perel References
* [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/07/1081222527300.html theage.com]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6945847.stm BBC]
* [http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=f8aee6f6-c8bc-4053-ac56-354809d37355&k=25791 The Nazis' Little Mascot]
* [http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hiu_S9WJWGSqNpE_BWgOVMEy3tfA 'Nazi mascot' ends almost 60 years of silence]
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