Leibke Kaganowicz (Leon Kahn)

Leon (born Leibke) grew up with two siblings in Eyshishok, a small Jewish shtetl, or town, in Poland. His father, Shael, was a merchant, and his mother, Miriam, made and sold kosher dairy products.  

1933-39: Leon went to a Hebrew elementary school and then attended a Polish public school. Some of his classmates bullied him for being Jewish. Leon wanted to become an engineer. In fall 1939, after Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland, Eyshishok became part of Lithuania. Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis passed through Eyshishok. They told them stories of Nazi violence against Jews.  

1940-45: In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Lithuania as part of the attack on the Soviet Union. The Germans occupied Leon’s hometown and imposed anti-Jewish measures. In September, a German killing squad and its Lithuanian helpers massacred the Jews of Eyshishok. During the massacre, Leon and his brother, Benjamin, hid. From his hiding spot, Leon witnessed the murder of the women and children. 

After the massacre, Leon reunited with his parents and two siblings. For the next three years, they moved from place to place, trying to find safe places to live and hide. But Leon, alone, survived the war. Leon’s mother was likely killed in the Treblinka killing center. First his brother, and then his father and sister, Freida, were killed after their group was betrayed. Leon joined a partisan resistance group and fought against German occupation. In July 1944, when the Soviet Union drove the German forces out of the area, Leon returned to Eyshishok. He made his way to a displaced persons camp in Austria. Leon eventually immigrated to Canada. He married another Holocaust survivor from Poland, Evelyn Landsman, and started a family.