Alex Short

Alex Kurzem, owner Elia Sołomonowicz Galperin (born ca. 1936 in the Belarusian SRR) - a Belarusian Jew who was incorporated into the Latvian military formation as a child. Alex Kurzem was born into a family of Belarusian Jews as Ilia Galperin. His father was a tanner. In October 1941 he lived with his mother, younger brother and sister in one of the Belarusian villages - probably in Kojdanow. On the night of October 20, 1941, at the age of five, he watched the pacification of his village from the hiding place (among others he saw the death of his loved ones). An orphan wandering through the woods was captured by a peasant and was sent to Latvian Police Battalion 18th in Belarus. He was rescued by Sergeant Jekabs Kulis, who ordered him to conceal the Jewish descent and gave him a new name, Uldis Kurzemnieks. From that moment he became a mascot of a battalion carrying out minor works for the soldiers. He was, however, also an observer of the pacification of Słonim. He spent 2 years with the army. In the meantime, the unit was incorporated into the Latvian SS Legion in 1943. The degree of Corporal was reduced - being the youngest person in this degree in the Nazi army. He was the hero of the German propaganda chronicles.

After some time the boy was sent to Riga. He was married to an industrialist - the Dzenis state, who after the occupation of Latvia in 1944 by the Soviet army fled to Germany. The boy spent another 5 years with them in the camp for the displaced, and then went with them to Australia. He changed his name to Alex Kurz.

Throughout most of his life, Kurz repressed his memories into oblivion. He was quiet about his childhood, but in the end fearing he would die and never know who he really was trying to reconstruct his childhood with his son. Based on this, he made a documentary film in Australia in 2002 by ABC. In July of the same year he published his father's biography, The Mascot, in Penguin Australia, detailing his father's extraordinary childhood.

The books of Piotr Głuchowski and Marcin Kowalski are not about the fate of the character. I do not need to kill myself. (Wydawnictwo Gazeta Wyborcza, 2008). Literature Authoritative control (person):

wiki