The Executions Begin

On October 21, 1941, the Jewish men of the village were rounded up and executed by a Latvian militarized police unit.

The women and children were also rounded up but were sent back to their homes when a sudden rainstorm struck.7
 

His Mother Tells Him Awful News

“My mother had said, ‘We are all going to die tomorrow’, but I didn’t want to die,” he recalls.

 
 

A Five Year-Old Sees Horror

That night Alex, who was five, fled in his nightclothes through a small hole in a fence. He says “I fell asleep by a tree and woke the next morning to the sound of screams. The soldiers shot my mother and put bayonets into my brother and sister. “I had to bite my hands to stop myself screaming.”
 

 

Lived In The Woods For Nine Months

Alex lived in the woods for nine months, eating mainly berries and sheltering under a greatcoat he took from a dead soldier. He also begged at farmhouses until, in July 1942, he was handed over to a Nazi patrol.

 

Young Alex Was Adopted

A soldier took pity on him, and even knew he was Jewish, decided not to kill him.  "No good, no good," he said. 'Look I don't want to kill you, but I can't leave you here because you will perish.

"'I'll take you with me, give you a new name and tell the other soldiers that you are a Russian orphan.'"

They Gave Him Toy Guns

"They gave me a uniform, a little gun and little pistol," Alex told the BBC.  My main job was to dance, and entertain the soldiers. To make them feel a bit happier."
 

Nazis Made Him A Movie Star

Alex was even featured in a German newsreel where the Latvians boasted of him being “the Reich’s youngest Nazi”.

 

Reading A Script

The film is typical propaganda but Alex, young as he was, realized he was living a double life. He witnessed bloody massacres of Jews and Soviet citizens suspected of opposing the Nazis. 8

Nazis Give Him To A Wealthy Family

By 1944, the tide of the war had changed, and the Soviets began re-conquering Latvia.

Alex 'claimed' that Nazis sent to live with a prominent Latvian family. 

Alex Winds Up In Australia

They survived the war, and in 1949, they emigrated to Australia and his name was anglicized to Alex Kurzem.

 

He Became A Circus Performer

For a time, he joined the circus and became the elephant boy, and was a big game hunter in the outback. All the time, he kept his past life to himself, not even telling his Australian wife, Patricia.



 

Becomes A TV Repairman

Eventually, Alex became a television repair man in Melbourne. It was not until 1997, that he finally told his family, and along with his son, Mark, set about discovering more about his past life. 5

 

He Returns To Latvia

After visiting the village where he was born, they found out his real name was Ilya Galperin, and even uncovered a film in a Latvian archive of Alex in full SS regalia