Michles and Kopelanski Families

My mother, Genia (née Kopelanski), was born in 1911 in Poliboy near Kovno. In 1927 she moved to Kovno by herself. In 1938 she married Ephraim Reibman and their son, Nahum (Noni), was born in 1940. My mother had one sister and two brothers. (The siblings together with their families perished in the Holocaust.)

My father, Ya'akov Michles, was born in 1902 in Kovno. He married Rosa Meirovitz and their daughter, Hassia, was born in 1932. My father had 6 siblings, 2 of whom perished in the Holocaust with their families.

The two families were sent to Kovno Ghetto in 1941. On the 27^th of March, 1944 there was a Child Aktion in which all the children (and the elderly) were murdered in the Valley of Death, the Ninth Fort of the Kovno Ghetto. Amongst those who perished were Ya'akov's parents (my grandparents), his wife Rosa and their son, Nahum, my little brother.

In 1944 the Germans decided to liquidate the Kovno Ghetto and all the women were sent to Stutthof concentration camp and the men were sent to the concentration camp in Dachau.

My father pushed his daughter, Hassia, into Genia's arms, whom he did not know and begged her to take care of his daughter. Genia took care of Hassia, often at great personal risk, during all their time in the camp.

At the end of the war, they returned to Kovno and Genia returned Hassia to her father. Genia and Ya'akov subsequently married and I am the result of that union.

Watch: Tracing my Mother's history