Camp Deported/Transferred to:
Poland, Auschwitz, Poland
http://tc.usc.edu/vhitc/(S(bteyysvutsxdpjihj4frjb45))/frameresults.htm
User Comments:
I believe Nina Kowner may be Leon Kowner's sister. Leon's middle name is Seweryn and there is a record for a Seweryn Kowner with the same birth month and year as Leon. I believe that Leon Kowner and Seweryn Kowner are the same person. Seweryn Kowner's transfer to Gnesen 20 is the same date as Nina Kowner. There are also two records for Nina Kowner, however both born on April 19 only one with the year of 1934 and one in the year 1935. I also believe these are the same person.
When conducting further research I found that Leon Kowner currently runs a family website found at http://www.kowner.com/family/ilia_kowner.php
On this website he says that his father's name is Ilia, with the nickname of Iljusza which I am assuming is the Elijasz Kowner found in the Hospital Records, Labor, Deportation, and Administrative Records Source.
On the Kowner Family website(which cites having the information provided by Leon Kowner) it mentions that his father was killed in January of 1945 in Silesia.
On this website Leon tells the story of his family being deported from Lodz in Late August 1944 to Auschwitz-Birkenau where he and his father were separated from his mother and sister. He goes on to say he later heard from a friend that his sister and mother died in the gas chambers.
His account of being deported to Auschwitz coincides with the Secondary Source that documents frequent transports to Auschwitz in 1944 where several men were held as prisoners, without being registered. This also explains why I was not able to find a record of Leon or Ilia(Elijasz) in the Auschwitz prisoner records.
For the date of deportation I used the date of death Leon gives for his mother on his website. The Secondary Source gives the closest date prior to her date of deportation at Aug 24th 1944.
Approver Comments:
Good research! Thank you for adding insight. However, while your sources are good, and you are likely correct about the dates, names of the parents, and the death dates, we cannot be sure of the exact date of deportation. I would like to agree with you that it was August 24th, as there was a transport on that day, but we cannot know for sure that Leon Kowner and his family were in fact transported on that day. While this family website is a wealth of information, it would be helpful if you could find offical records to back all this up. Because we are not sure of the transport date, I can only mark this as possible. Thank you so much for your superb research.
