Benjamin Cvizon
I was born in Kovno on 18th February 1922. I was the firstborn son with two younger sisters. My parents owned a grocery store on Vilnius street. We lived in a three-room apartment on the same street across from the store.
I studied in the “Schwabe” Hebrew school. My sister Frieda learned at the “Yavne” Religious Gymnasium for Girls. I had many friends. I was a member of a youth club that was very active. I was part of a theatrical group. I often went to the opera and the theater and led a very happy life.
On 21st June 1941 I came home very late. I had just fallen asleep when I woke to hear the sound of explosions. The war had begun. That morning changed my whole life. The coming years were very bad for us Jews. In August 1941 my entire family was sent to the Williampola ghetto together with the rest of the Kovno Jews. The ghetto was surrounded by a barbed wire fence and armed guards were stationed all around it. We were left there with no food. Suffering and starvation ensued. My father and I did forced labor in the area of the airport. Each day we had to walk 10 kilometers there and back. In October I began forced labor inside the ghetto.
One day 30,000 Jews were forced into the main square and then selection began – left meant death, right meant you were still allowed to live. 10,000 Jews were sent to the Ninth Fort (of the Kaunas Fortress). That day I lost my grandmother. We remained in the ghetto until 1943, and then came another “Aktion”. My sister Frieda and I and another 2,000 Jews were taken to different concentration camps in Estonia.
Almost everyone I knew perished, most were sick and invalids.
On 23rd August 1944 I was sent to the Stutthof concentration camp. After that I was taken from one camp to another and had to work until I was totally exhausted. At the very moment I felt I was about to die, the last camp I was in, near Lubeck, was liberated. It was a miracle.
The only ones who remained alive were me and my sister Frieda. She went to Israel and I returned to Kovno, and later on moved to Vilna.
I have two sons from my two marriages – Mula (Shmuel) and Boris.
Delivered by the family
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