Literature Review on the Children of the Holocaust
Nearly 1.5 million Jewish children lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. By concentrating on the Jewish children of Germany and Eastern Europe the Nazis could attempt to diminish the numbers of the Jewish race. Beginning as early as 1933, children began to experience laws that discriminated against Jews. German children felt completely assimilated in German society one day, socializing with non-Jewish friends, to find that they could no longer attend German schools by 1937 or use public pools. The persecution against Jewish children leading up to the Holocaust was keenly felt. The children of school age endured anti-Semitism from classmates and teachers alike. Some families fled the persecution, but too many stayed behind, not believing the facts that were before them. Many German Jews made the mistake of seeing themselves as Germans first. Every country that the Nazis took made Jewish children feel similar types of persecution.
Jews were eventually sent to ghettos like Terezin in Czechoslovakia and Warsaw in Poland. They were also sent to concentration camps and eventually extermination camps like Auschwitz. Children of the ghettos died of malnutrition and disease prompted by overcrowding. Hana Brady was one such Jewish girl that lived in such appalling conditions in Terezin. During the “Final Solution” girls like Hana found themselves taking trains to Auschwitz. “ In the middle of the night on October 23, 1944, the wheels of the train ground to a screeching halt. The doors were opened. The girls were ordered out of the boxcar. This was Auschwitz. (Pg. 81, Levine) Pavel Stránský, in his book spoke of Dr. Mengele, who started a children’s ward and would go to children’s productions. There, Mengele would sit children on his knee and later would have no qualms about sending those same children to their death. Mengele was the same doctor that performed deadly experiments on Jewish twins. The cruelty against children during this time period is unparalleled.
These Jewish children of the time endured humiliations, separation from family and loved ones, experienced starvation and disease, with far too many dying at the hands of the Nazis. Some escaped, but far too many children met an untimely death. The plight of the Jewish children of the Holocaust is eloquently described by Emanuel Ringelblum, a Warsaw Ghetto author who wrote in 1942, “Even in the most barbaric times, a human spark glowed in the rudest heart, and children were spared. But the Hitlerian beast is quite different. It would devour the dearest of us, those who arouse the greatest compassion—our innocent children.” (Pg. xvi Roth)
Nearly 1.5 million Jewish children lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. By concentrating on the Jewish children of Germany and Eastern Europe the Nazis could attempt to diminish the numbers of the Jewish race. Beginning as early as 1933, children began to experience laws that discriminated against Jews. German children felt completely assimilated in German society one day, socializing with non-Jewish friends, to find that they could no longer attend German schools by 1937 or use public pools. The persecution against Jewish children leading up to the Holocaust was keenly felt. The children of school age endured anti-Semitism from classmates and teachers alike. Some families fled the persecution, but too many stayed behind, not believing the facts that were before them. Many German Jews made the mistake of seeing themselves as Germans first. Every country that the Nazis took made Jewish children feel similar types of persecution.
Jews were eventually sent to ghettos like Terezin in Czechoslovakia and Warsaw in Poland. They were also sent to concentration camps and eventually extermination camps like Auschwitz. Children of the ghettos died of malnutrition and disease prompted by overcrowding. Hana Brady was one such Jewish girl that lived in such appalling conditions in Terezin. During the “Final Solution” girls like Hana found themselves taking trains to Auschwitz. “ In the middle of the night on October 23, 1944, the wheels of the train ground to a screeching halt. The doors were opened. The girls were ordered out of the boxcar. This was Auschwitz. (Pg. 81, Levine) Pavel Stránský, in his book spoke of Dr. Mengele, who started a children’s ward and would go to children’s productions. There, Mengele would sit children on his knee and later would have no qualms about sending those same children to their death. Mengele was the same doctor that performed deadly experiments on Jewish twins. The cruelty against children during this time period is unparalleled.
These Jewish children of the time endured humiliations, separation from family and loved ones, experienced starvation and disease, with far too many dying at the hands of the Nazis. Some escaped, but far too many children met an untimely death. The plight of the Jewish children of the Holocaust is eloquently described by Emanuel Ringelblum, a Warsaw Ghetto author who wrote in 1942, “Even in the most barbaric times, a human spark glowed in the rudest heart, and children were spared. But the Hitlerian beast is quite different. It would devour the dearest of us, those who arouse the greatest compassion—our innocent children.” (Pg. xvi Roth)