The Deportation Of Children During The Holocaust

World War two, the deadliest war to ever take place, began on September first, 1939, and ended six long years later on September second, 1945, with over sixty million casualties. Eleven million of these casualties were caused by the concentration camps of the Holocaust, or the systematic killing of six and a half million Jews and five million others by the Nazi’s. The children of the Holocaust were the worst off. They weren't given much chance at survival. All children under the age of twelve were sent straight into the gas chambers and those that were older and healthy were sent to the camps to be used for labor. The small children that did manage to survive were most likely born in the ghettos or camps and were hidden by the prisoners. Despite
the fact that they all suffered through individual horrors, all of these children had one thing in common, pain. Whether the pain was physical, mental, or emotional depended on the person but one thing that is for sure is that all of these brave people survived the deadliest mass killing and torture in all of history and lived to tell their tell of the terrible nightmare of torture and pain that is the Holocaust.
As life in Germany became increasingly dangerous and the deportation of thousands began, parents were faced with the choice of risking their children’s lives, or hiding them. One opportunity to hide them presented itself in 1938, a couple of years before millions of jews would be murdered by the mobile killing squads accompanying the German army as it invaded the Soviet Union (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, N.D). In the article “Children during the Holocaust (abridged article)” an opportunity parents had to hide their kids is highlighted , “Between 1938 and 1940, the Kindertransport(Children's Transport) was the informal name of a rescue effort which brought thousands of refugee Jewish children (without their parents) to safety in Great Britain from Nazi Germany and German-occupied territories.” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, N.D). These transports sent the children to territories were they would be safer. The goal was for organizations to help pay for the children’s education and care, while away (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, N.D).
When things become safe again the cost of sending the children home would be covered by the organizations as well (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, N.D). Those chosen usually included the children in the most desperate situations such as those whose parents could not take care of them or who had been sent to a camp. These transports gave children the chance of refugee until the wars end (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, N.D). However, the transports weren't the only means of escaping. Jewish people tried to hide in a variety of ways. They hid in cellars, attics, and basements, they concealed their identity by using fake identification papers, and sometimes adopted other religions in order to blend in (Facing History.org). Families sometimes stayed together, but often children were sent alone (Facing History.org). This is because people were more willing to take the risk for a child than an adult (Facing History.org). Life in hiding was hard on the children. Having to leave their families behind, sometimes with no guarantee of seeing them again, was scary. The children often had to lie about themselves, their backgrounds, and even their faith. One child survivor, Ruth Federman, had been on a train headed for England. Unfortunately, the train didn't make it, and the children were sent home (Federman, February 13th, 2008). Ruth says in an interview by Sidney Bolkosky that “ I was, I was very tall when I was 13, and, and very thin, and during the winter most of the time, I was, I was sick. And I said the main thing was that I shouldn't be during a war there. The food, I think. I don't think that she saw something coming--what came.” (Federman, February 13th, 2008). Ruth’s mother had wanted her to leave. She didn’t think that the war would last as long as it did, but knew what the war would mean for their lives. Ruth wasn’t able to get to England on the train, but was able to get to palestine on a ship from Trieste (Federman, February 13th, 2008).
Unfortunately not all of the children were able to escape on the kindertransport. Everyone who wasn’t able to flee the Nazis was captured and taken to the ghettos, where they were kept isolated from everyone else in the poor side of their town. Life in the ghettos was horrible as they were usually overcrowded and filthy. According to the article “Life in the Ghettos” by the USHMM the plumbing never worked so human waste was thrown out into the street which caused diseases to spread. These intense living conditions claimed the lives of hundreds of Jewish families. That wasn’t the worst part of living in the ghettos though. Everyday a child became an orphan, everyday a child became a parent to a younger sibling. In the ghettos children were no longer children. Many of them lived in the streets begging for food and they would freeze to death in the winter. Those who were not orphans, according to the article “ Daily Life in the ghettos” by Yad Vashem, would risk their lives to smuggle in food for their families. One example of these children would be Jack Gruener, or prisoner B-3087. It was 1939 and Jack was only 10 years old when the Nazi’s invaded Poland. His family was forced to live with ten other families in a apartment in a ghetto but later on he was taken to a concentration camp. Jack survived not only the first camp he was sent to but ten other concentration camps and their killing centers.
The first Killing center was set up in 1941.
Hitler’s “Solution” to the problem that was the Jewish people was to murder six and a half million of them throughout Europe. The ghettos, where Jews were isolated from the outside world, were emptied as thousands were sent to the concentration camps. At the camps families were separated. The elderly, the weak, pregnant women, and little children, were immediately killed either by an SS soldier or by the gas chambers. During this time children had less of a chance of surviving. At one of the camps, Auschwitz, children went straight from the ramp where they were unloaded, to the gas chambers (Auschwitz.org, “Jewish Children”). They weren’t able to work so they were gassed. The few children that were chosen to live were put to work (Auschwitz.org, “Jewish Children”). Some would even be used in experiments by SS doctors (Auschwitz.org, “Jewish
Children”).
Taking everything into account these children suffered horribly. They were moved in to one room apartments with 15 other people, were starved, separated from their families, and eventually killed. Many of them watched loved ones die at their feet, they watched their family members being tortured and starved, as children. They themselves went through horrendous torture both physically and mentally. They were forced to give up everything they hand and were used in experiments by nazi doctors. The children of the Holocaust are some of the bravest people that we will ever have the pleasure of knowing. And because of them history will hopefully never repeat itself.