Miriam Karkas — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Miriam Karkas, daughter of Arieh and Rachel Klatchko. Born in Kovno, Lithuania

I was born in 1920 in a kibbutz near Kovno (Kaunas). My father came to the city from Vilna, Lithuania. After the revolution, we returned to Lithuania to the town of Kybartai. My father was a sign painter; later he owned a grocery store. I had eight brothers and sisters. Most of my immediate family lived in nearby Vilna. My father died of a heart attack. After his death, the family scattered: my three sisters traveled to Eretz Israel, the rest of the children stayed with their mother and moved to Kovno, where I myself worked at casual jobs.

In June 1941, the Germans entered Kovno. The Lithuanians cooperated with the Germans. After a while, we were transferred to the ghetto. My mother, my brother and I went to live with a relative in the Slobodka ghetto.

I worked at various hard jobs, such as laying railroad rails. The hunger and fear were terrible. In 1942 an 'aktion' was held. I remained alive; many others were murdered. In 1943, I was told that I was being transferred to Kes Labroda. After a few hours, the truck arrived at the train station. I jumped out of the truck and helped my mother get off, but a German soldier hit me on the head with a club and threw me into the train's carriage. My mother stayed in the truck. Those left in the truck were sprayed with gas and killed. I rode the overcrowded train for three days in suffocating conditions, with no food or anything to drink except stale water. The train arrived at the Porotkunda concentration camp in Estonia. In this camp, I worked in coal sorting. The weather was very cold. They shaved our hair after we were infected with lice. In 1944, as the Russians approached, I was transferred to the Stutthof camp. Conditions in the camp were harsh. The Germans asked 300 women to volunteer. I volunteered. We were sent to an Oxentsol weapons factory near Hamburg. I assembled weapons, and a few months later, when the Russians approached, we were transferred to Bergen-Belsen. We were stripped and put in the gas chambers. Luckily, the fixture broke down. Once again women were chosen to work in Oxentsol. I was one of the 50 women. Towards the end of the war I was transferred to Sweden. This saved my life.

I lost my mother and brother Ya'akov, as well as dozens of members of my extended family during the Holocaust.

In 1949, I left Sweden and joined my family in Israel.

In 1950, I married Yitzhak Kirk, a native of Lithuania. We ran a store in Kiryat Yam.

Yitzhak and I had two children: Rachel and Ya'akov.

I have 6 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.

From: Remembering for Generations - Documenting Holocaust Survivors [Hebrew]