On March 27–28, 1944, some 1,600 children aged 12 or less, alongside many of their parents who attempted to intervene, and elderly people aged 55 or more, approximately 2,500 in total, were rounded up and murdered in the Kinder Aktion ("children action"). 40 Jewish Ghetto policemen who refused under torture to disclose hiding locations were also murdered by Bruno Kittel. During this time, police cars roamed the Ghetto streets and music was blared over loudspeakers to mute the terrified screams of families. Reports of similar actions at other towns had reached the Ghetto prior to the round-up, and some parents managed to smuggle their children to non-Jewish foster homes outside the Ghetto. However, the vast majority of Ghetto children were murdered. Very few Jewish children survived by the time Kovno was liberated by the Russian forces on August 1, 1944.