Children Of The Holocaust: Children Of The Holocaust
Children of the Holocaust
Children were the most vulnerable people during the holocaust era. The Nazis had it set in their minds that they killed them because of a racial struggle or as a measure of security. The Germans and their collaborators killed them for both those reasons and also in retaliation towards the partisan attacks.
1.5 million children were brutally murdered by both the Germans and their collaborators. Amongst these children about one million Jewish children were killed. The remaining amount of children killed were Romani Gypsy children, German children with physical and mental disabilities living in institutions, Posh children, and children residing in the occupied Soviet Union. Jewish and non-Jewish adolescents between …show more content…
the ages of 13 – 18 had a greater possibility on surviving. They were usually forced into labor.
Both Jewish and non-Jewish children’s fate could have been categorized in 5 different ways. The first way is they’re immediately killed in killing centers. Secondly, children can be killed immediately after birth or institutions. A third way their fate can be categorized is by children being hid by prisoners in camps and ghettos and having a chance at survival. A fourth way is by children, usually over the age of 12, were sent to be experimented on by cruel no caring scientist and such. Lastly children were killed during reprisal operations or so called anti-partisan operations.
Some Jewish children were a bit more fortunate than others; they had the opportunity to hide alongside their families. Although they were safe from the Nazis they were still forced to miss out on their childhood. They must keep quiet and still while living in closets, holes or even sewers. They received small amounts of food by people who knew they were hiding. Some of these children lived in convents or alongside Gentiles who didn’t know they Jewish. Many children found it difficult to find their place in Jewish or Christian religions after the war.
Very young children were immediately sent to gas chambers of concentration camps. The conditions in these horrible living camps included malnutrition, poor protection from the elements, and hard labor. These poor children were forced to do so many things a child should not even consider doing at that age. They were forced to do electrical work to carrying fairly large and heavy stones for construction on burying the dead. They were kept in the camps until the point where they couldn’t work any longer and were exterminated. The children formed ties within the camp in order to have a stronger chance at surviving those conditions.
After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the world came to know the staggering human toll of the holocaust.
Few children survived. Across Europe in killing centers and concentration camps, systematic murder, abuse, disease, and medical experiments took the many lives of children. Only 6,700 teenagers were a bit more fortunate to be selected for forced labor out of the 216,000 Jewish youngsters sent to Auschwitz camp. Soviet troops found just 451 Jewish children among the 9,000 surviving prisoners, when camp was liberated.
After the war, the parents whose children were in hiding spent months and years searching for them. Some parents were fortunate on finding them only shortly after but, not everyone ran the same luck. Many parents had to resort to tracing services, newspaper services, and survivor registries in hope of finding their children. The search for family usually ended in tragedy. For some parents, they discovered their offspring were killed or had disappeared. For children who were in hiding, had to accept the cold truth that no one had survived and they weren’t going to be reclaimed. Children during the holocaust had a very hard time with processing all that was occurring. This was a horrible amount of time that they had to live through. Few survived and a great amount died. It is now
over.
Bibliography
1. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005142
2. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hidden.html
3. http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/people/children.htm
Children were the most vulnerable people during the holocaust era. The Nazis had it set in their minds that they killed them because of a racial struggle or as a measure of security. The Germans and their collaborators killed them for both those reasons and also in retaliation towards the partisan attacks.
1.5 million children were brutally murdered by both the Germans and their collaborators. Amongst these children about one million Jewish children were killed. The remaining amount of children killed were Romani Gypsy children, German children with physical and mental disabilities living in institutions, Posh children, and children residing in the occupied Soviet Union. Jewish and non-Jewish adolescents between …show more content…
the ages of 13 – 18 had a greater possibility on surviving. They were usually forced into labor.
Both Jewish and non-Jewish children’s fate could have been categorized in 5 different ways. The first way is they’re immediately killed in killing centers. Secondly, children can be killed immediately after birth or institutions. A third way their fate can be categorized is by children being hid by prisoners in camps and ghettos and having a chance at survival. A fourth way is by children, usually over the age of 12, were sent to be experimented on by cruel no caring scientist and such. Lastly children were killed during reprisal operations or so called anti-partisan operations.
Some Jewish children were a bit more fortunate than others; they had the opportunity to hide alongside their families. Although they were safe from the Nazis they were still forced to miss out on their childhood. They must keep quiet and still while living in closets, holes or even sewers. They received small amounts of food by people who knew they were hiding. Some of these children lived in convents or alongside Gentiles who didn’t know they Jewish. Many children found it difficult to find their place in Jewish or Christian religions after the war.
Very young children were immediately sent to gas chambers of concentration camps. The conditions in these horrible living camps included malnutrition, poor protection from the elements, and hard labor. These poor children were forced to do so many things a child should not even consider doing at that age. They were forced to do electrical work to carrying fairly large and heavy stones for construction on burying the dead. They were kept in the camps until the point where they couldn’t work any longer and were exterminated. The children formed ties within the camp in order to have a stronger chance at surviving those conditions.
After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the world came to know the staggering human toll of the holocaust.
Few children survived. Across Europe in killing centers and concentration camps, systematic murder, abuse, disease, and medical experiments took the many lives of children. Only 6,700 teenagers were a bit more fortunate to be selected for forced labor out of the 216,000 Jewish youngsters sent to Auschwitz camp. Soviet troops found just 451 Jewish children among the 9,000 surviving prisoners, when camp was liberated.
After the war, the parents whose children were in hiding spent months and years searching for them. Some parents were fortunate on finding them only shortly after but, not everyone ran the same luck. Many parents had to resort to tracing services, newspaper services, and survivor registries in hope of finding their children. The search for family usually ended in tragedy. For some parents, they discovered their offspring were killed or had disappeared. For children who were in hiding, had to accept the cold truth that no one had survived and they weren’t going to be reclaimed. Children during the holocaust had a very hard time with processing all that was occurring. This was a horrible amount of time that they had to live through. Few survived and a great amount died. It is now
over.
Bibliography
1. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005142
2. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hidden.html
3. http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/people/children.htm