我還記得9月暑假的時候就有看過這樣的報導了
但今天在網路上又看到一次
且記者把澳洲跟奧地利的翻譯搞錯了
正確是在澳洲

躲納粹屠殺 隱藏身分半世紀
更新日期:2007/11/13 19:09
如果把自己的真實身份隱藏超過半個世紀,你還會記得你是誰嗎?一名住在奧地利的猶太人,當年為了躲避納粹大屠殺,隱藏身份超過五十多年,如今他將這段祕密公諸於世,令人不勝唏噓。穿著納粹親衛隊軍服的小男孩,與小朋友們玩在一塊兒,讓人難以想像的是,天真無邪的臉孔後面,竟然隱藏著攸關一場民族浩劫的祕密。老先生看著自己小時候的紀錄片,隱藏在他心中半個多世紀的祕密,也正緩緩浮現出來。具有猶太血統、現年七十二歲的庫澤姆,不斷努力拼湊模糊的記憶,他自稱在緊急時刻逃離了家園,親眼目睹家人手足慘遭納粹軍人逮捕殺害。為了生存、他曾經露宿山林、向村民乞討維生,但最後還是淪入德軍拉托維亞部隊的魔爪,眼看命在旦夕,沒想到奇蹟就這樣發生了。庫澤姆被這名軍官、以俄羅斯孤兒的身份收養,並成為納粹親衛隊的吉祥物,接下來兩年多、他隨著軍隊探視傷兵,納粹的宣傳影片裡、還能看到他身穿軍服的身影。庫澤姆躲過了人類史上最大的民族浩劫之一,也把自己的真實身份、隱藏超過半世紀,直到一九九七年生了一場大病,他才驚覺心中那股追本溯源的迫切需要。庫澤姆在兒子的協助下,找到位於白俄羅斯的家鄉,也查出自己的真實性名,如今這段傳奇被寫成了書、也拍成了得獎影片,讓納粹屠殺的血淚史上、又多了一項無法抹滅的見證,回首二戰期間的浩劫,讓人不勝唏噓。。(民視新聞林聖卿綜合報導)


這是BBC的報導:

The secret history of the Nazi mascot
By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Melbourne


Alex Kurzem came to Australia in 1949 carrying just a small brown briefcase, but weighed down by some harrowing psychological and emotional baggage.

Tucked away in his briefcase were the secrets of his past - fragments of his life that he kept hidden for decades.


Alex was forced to keep his Jewish identity hidden

In 1997, after raising a family in Melbourne with his Australian bride, he finally revealed himself. He told how, at the age of five, he had been adopted by the SS and became a Nazi mascot.

His personal history, one of the most remarkable stories to emerge from World War II, was published recently in a book entitled The Mascot.

"They gave me a uniform, a little gun and little pistol," Alex told the BBC.

"They gave me little jobs to do - to polish shoes, carry water or light a fire. But my main job was to entertain the soldiers. To make them feel a bit happier."

Painful memories

In newsreels, he was paraded as 'the Reich's youngest Nazi' and he witnessed some unspeakable atrocities.

But his SS masters never discovered the most essential detail about his life: their little Nazi mascot was Jewish.

"They didn't know that I was a Jewish boy who had escaped a Nazi death squad. They thought I was a Russian orphan."

His story starts where his childhood memories begin - in a village in Belarus on 20 October 1941, the day it was invaded by the German army.



When the shooting stopped I had no idea where to go so I went to live in the forests, because I couldn't go back. I was the only one left


"I remember the German army invading the village, lining up all the men in the city square and shooting them. My mother told me that my father had been killed, and that we would all be killed."

"I didn't want to die, so in the middle of the night I tried to escape. I went to kiss my mother goodbye, and ran up into the hill overlooking the village until the morning came."

That was the day his family was massacred - his mother, his brother, his sister.

"I was very traumatised. I remember biting my hand so I couldn't cry out loud, because if I did they would have seen me hiding in the forest. I can't remember exactly what happened. I think I must have passed out a few times. It was terrible."

False identity

"When the shooting stopped I had no idea where to go so I went to live in the forests, because I couldn't go back. I was the only one left. I must have been five or six."

"I went into the forest but no-one wanted me. I knocked on peoples' doors and they gave me bits of bread but they told me to move on. Nobody took me in."

He survived by scavenging clothes from the bodies of dead soldiers.

After about nine months in the forest, a local man handed him over to the Latvian police brigade, which later became incorporated in the Nazi SS.

That very day, people were being lined up for execution, and Alex thought he, too, was about to die.

"There was a soldier near me and I said, 'Before you kill me, can you give me a bit of bread?' He looked at me, and took me around the back of the school. He examined me and saw that I was Jewish. "No good, no good," he said. 'Look I don't want to kill, 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.'"

Joining the circus

To this day, Alex Kurzem has no idea why Sergeant Jekabs Kulis took pity on him. Whatever his motives, it certainly helped that Alex had Aryan looks. And together, they kept the secret.

"Every moment I had to remind myself not to let my guard down, because if ever anyone found out, I was dead. I was scared of the Russians shooting me and the Germans discovering I was Jewish. I had no-one to turn to."


Alex Kurzem kept the secret from his wife and family for decades

Young Alex saw action on the Russian front, and was even used by the SS to lure Jewish people to their deaths.

Outside the cattle trains which carried victims to the concentration camps, he handed out chocolate bars to tempt them in.

Then, in 1944, with the Nazis facing almost certain defeat, the commander of the SS unit sent him to live with a Latvian family.

Five years later, he managed to reach Australia. For a time, he worked in a circus and eventually became a television repair man in Melbourne.

All the time, he kept his past life to himself, not even telling his Australian wife, Patricia.

"When I left Europe I said 'forget about your past. You are going to a new country and a new life. Switch off and don't even think about it.'

"I managed to do it. I told people I lost my parents in the war, but I didn't go into detail. I kept the secret and never told anyone."

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.

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.


Survivor ... Alex Kurzem today

下面是有關於《The Mascot》這本書的介紹

《The Mascot》一書描述了作者Mark Kurzem的父親Alex Kurzem的真實故事,此書在遞送企劃案後,美國Viking、英國Ryder和澳洲Penguin在競價下買下版權,預計在今年七月同步出版。

多年來,本書作者Mark Kurzem一直住在牛津從事他的學術生活。有一天,他的父親Alex Kurzem意外地出現在他家門外,娓娓道述一個多年隱藏在他心中的大秘密。

當年Alex才五歲,是個快樂的猶太小孩。在混亂的二次世界大戰初期時,一組納粹軍隊侵襲他所住的小鎮,迫使每天被父母耳提面命「看到納粹就逃」的他,下意識的反應就是:「躲藏」。冷冽的俄羅斯冬天,他過著到處偷食物果腹、偷戰死軍人的服裝禦寒的日子,但在躲藏一段時日後,拉脫維亞的一組軍隊還是發現了他。

軍隊沒有人知道他是猶太人,還把他當成是隊上的吉祥物,刻意打扮他,帶著他歷經一場又一場的猶太大屠殺。若是遇到軍隊失落或是發生可怕的事情時,機伶的Alex還是逗她們開心,甚至還跟他們拍了一支有關納粹的宣傳片。戰爭結束後,他們將Alex送到澳洲的一個拉脫維亞納粹家庭撫養。

一直以來,不管是身為猶太人或是納粹人,他從未對人談及自己的童年,甚至於他的老婆和小孩。然而,藏在心中的這個秘密卻日日折磨著他,使得五十歲的他決定對家人坦白,說出他的過去,也希望從事外交的兒子能幫助他尋根。

在墨爾本、東京、牛津大學攻讀學位的Mark Kurzem,也曾任日本大阪市長的國際外交員,聽完父親的故事後,開始透過各種管道掀開層層的線索,設法找回五歲前的Alex。

當Alex的故事散播開來後,陸續收到許多人自稱是Alex的家人,但每次總是滿懷希望前去赴約,失望而歸。直到有一天,他們收到一張照片:一個小男孩出現在一群軍隊的中間,而照片中的小男孩正是Alex,但是卻沒有署名和寄件地址。在收到這張照片不久後,他們收到一封來自於白俄羅斯首都明斯克(Minsk)的信,是一位自稱是Alex同父異母的兄弟所寄來的,內容描述自己的父親可能就是Alex的親生父親。這是多年來,最為可信的一個消息。由於來信這對父子目前住在俄羅斯的一個小城鎮Koidanove,但Alex記不得那裡是不是自己五歲前成長的故鄉,於是他們父子倆決定前往俄羅斯,尋找回五歲前的Alex的家人,也找回屬於自己的「根」。

《The Mascot》一書描述了一個倖存的故事,一個懷有堅定意念的「找回原本自己」的故事。
(從http://www.nurnberg.com.tw/321/non-fi/03-246.htm轉載)


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