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Kristina Dodd

Mr. Neuburger

Eng 101-129 Comp I

10 April 2011

Research Paper

Children in the Holocaust

Think of what life would be like for a child or a young adult living in a world of fear.

Every day walking outside and seeing the world in darkness and terror as if it were coming to an

end. A child watching other people and most times their family killed right before their eyes;

everyday, hoping and praying that they are lucky enough to be one of the ones to survive. While

both adult and children prisoners of many different descents were severely affected by the

Holocaust, the brutality and murders of children were by far the worst and most cruel motive of

Hitler. Children were the most innocent victims, because they had no voice and were simply

used as pawns in the Nazi mass genocide.

The Holocaust lasted through the years of 1933-1945. It began in Germany and

ultimately engulfed most of the European continent. The first and foremost perpetrator during the

war was Adolf Hitler. He was the supreme architect of the operations; without him it would have

been inconceivable. Following, would have been his Nazi soldiers. They were led by Hitler, but

even not under his command they were still extremely cruel and brutal to the prisoners of the

camps. In the beginning, the polish Jews were forced to move into ghettos in order for the

Germans to control such a large population. Too many Jews were in the ghettos and a “final

solution to the Jewish question” was needed in all of the areas that the Germans dominated

Children under the age of 12 lined up and separated

from their families to be taken to the gas chambers.
Source:
Anne http://bit.ly/frAAIb
Frank
Source: http://bit.ly/hpkltu
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throughout Europe. This “final solution” would be the systematic method of the total

extermination of the Jewish population. Concentration camps equipped with facilities for gassing

people were being erected in German occupied territories. Most were erected in Poland. The

Jews were to be deported from the ghettos to these killing centers. The first transports were

usually filled with woman, children, or older men (Johnson 450). The killing rate for all children

surpassed men and woman by thousands. The actual number of children that died during the

Holocaust was never actually known but estimates range

as high as almost 2 million. More than 1.2 million Jewish

children were killed, making them the most determent

target. Although, tens of thousands of Gypsy children

and thousands of handicapped German, Polish, French,

and Eastern European children were also murdered while under the Nazi rule (Paldiel). “The

majority of children under the age of 12 were immediately taken to gas chambers and burned.

Others were shot and killed. Some children/ young adults survived selection but died of

starvation, disease, or experimentations in the concentration camps. Disease spread like wildfire

throughout the camps because of the poor conditions and no working sewer systems. People

were not able to clean themselves regularly and had no other clothes. As well, because of no

sewer systems, there was excrement everywhere. Some diseases that spread around the camps

were: Typhus, Typhoid, Dysentery, and Tuberculosis. Typhus is a disease spread by lice or fleas.

It has many symptoms such as abdominal pain, backache, rash, high fever, cough, headache,

nausea, and vomiting. Typhoid Fever is another disease caused from infected water of food

supply. Once someone gets typhoid is can spread rapidly. Its symptoms are poor appetite,

headache, aches and pains, fever, and diarrhea. Dysentery is not a disease itself, but rather a

symptom for a potentially fetal illness. Dysentery is technically any bloody diarrhea. These
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things thrive in food and water that has been contaminated by human feces. The symptoms

included in Dysentery are intense stomach pain, fever, weight loss, and cramps. Tuberculosis is a

disease caused by bacteria again, and can be contracted by inhaling it through the air. As well,

you can get it through touch, such as shaking hands. Symptoms are coughing, sneezing, shouts,

or spits (Josh).” These are just a few of the many diseases that claimed many lives during the

Holocaust. “One such child that had the fate of being immediately put to death as they entered

the death camp was, Toska Freuchtbaum. Toska was only nine years old when she was deported

with her mother, along with 998 other Viennese Jews, to Belzec death camp and its gas chamber.

The express purpose of this camp was to exterminate Jews. Only one person is known to have

survived this camp. No further trace of Toska has ever been found and the exact circumstances

of her death are unknown (Toska).” “Another victim, Anne Frank, a young Jewish German girl,

lived until the very end of World War II. Her and her family was forced into hiding when she

was only thirteen years old. She brought with her a diary that she

wrote in every day, telling about her feelings and situations and

what it was like to be in her position. In 1944, the Nazi’s

eventually found her and her family in hiding, and they were

sent to concentration camps. In 1945, at the age of sixteen, Anne

Frank died in the concentration camps from typhus. Her diary

was found and is now an amazing book, describing all of the

terrifying situations that she went through. The book is called, The Diary of Anne Frank (United

States…).

There were very few ways to stay alive during this time if you were a Jew, and for Jewish

children, and other nationalities of children, there were slim to none. Most of the children that

did survive were over the age of 12, or more the less considered young adults. The young adults

Young children stripped down waiting to be

experimented on.
Soucre: http://bit.ly/h6Kldv
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had the best chance to survive the concentration camps

because they were the most able to work under harsh

conditions and survive until the end of the war. Although

surviving the immediate selection to go to the gas

chambers, lives in the concentration camps were horrific.

Most of the male children were put to work digging

ditches, digging graves for mass burials, and shoveling ashes from the gas chambers. Females

were forced to be sex slaves to the German soldiers. They were stripped and shaved upon arrival

and often times violated as the process was being taken place. Although most girls were either

sex slaves or cooks, they also did hard labor as well. Margot Heuman was a young girl who was

arrested with her family at the age of fourteen. They were sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto in

Czechoslovakia. The camps were overcrowded and unsanitary. There was little food. In May

1943, Margot and her family were deported to Auschwitz. She never saw her parents again. She

worked as a slave laborer with her little sister. However, her sister was murdered a few months

later. At one time her job was to recycle bricks used to patch bombed buildings. She survived the

war and was liberated at the age of seventeen (Margot). Children were also often times lab rats

for the German experimental camps. German doctors along with Jewish, Polish, and French

prisoner doctors were experimenting on children along with men and woman, to find cures for

certain diseases. They would infect the prisoners with the disease by giving them pills or other

forms to infect them, and record the symptoms and information. The doctors would lie to the

prisoners telling them that they are giving them vitamins and steroids to make them better, but

they were really testing their different kinds of medications on them with no intentions of

knowing whether or not they will survive (Janina).

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“Dr. Janina Parfjanowicz was deported to Auschwitz where she remained for four long, horrific

years. She was one of only 3,000 survivors. She was “fortunate” in that she was in training to be

a doctor at the beginning of the war and thereby her skills

were necessary in the camps (Janina).”

The children that survived are very lucky, although those

who perished we shall forever remember the brutality

and injustice of their deaths.

Children holding their arms out to get their numbered
tattoos.
Soucre: http://bit.ly/haLoG7 Most of the German people did not intervene or say anything about

what was being done in fear of their lives and their families, but some of them did try to help

hide and nurture targeted victims. Some parents in

countries allied to Germany, such as France and Belgium,

would give up their children to adoption to Christian

families in an effort to save them (Paldiel). “Some non-

Jews, motivated by moral concern and good will, risked

their lives in order to save the lives of Jewish children.

They later became known as "righteous Gentiles. A child

was much easier to hide than an adult because children

Orphanage in Otwok, Poland.
Source: http://bit.ly/hi7K7s
were not required to carry any form of identification. In

addition, they could easily blend in with the groups of non-Jewish children who became orphans

of war. In most cases, arrangements to hide these children were made through personal contacts.

Hiding places for Jewish children included convents, boarding schools, and orphanages. Being

sent to these hiding places was a terrifying experience for children; they were made to travel

under difficult conditions to unknown destinations. Yet, they were aware that they were in

danger, and leaving their families and homes would save their lives. They were told to not speak
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of their past or their families. As well, they had to change their names and convert to

Christianity, for the time being, to avoid being discovered by the Nazi’s (Jewish Fed…).” Some

Jewish children were able to be saved by Catholic priests and nuns in their orphanages and

schools. The Queen Elisabeth Home, located in Chateau du Faing owned by the Sisters of

Charity of Besancon was transformed into a center for children. It subsequently housed seventy-

five children who were to survive the war (Paldiel). There was a lot of help from surrounding

countries and German families in the effort to save many innocent children who were being

murdered because of the war and their family’s beliefs. It is sad to think that these children had

to live their lives pretending they were someone else; not being able to talk about their birth

parents, siblings, or even their religion. In addition, these children were left wondering if their

families were even alive.

As the war was coming to an end, those that survived the concentration camps were

deported to Buchenwald in late 1944. Many of the last survivors were killed in the forced

marches toward Buchenwald. The children lucky enough to survive were placed in Children’s

Block 66 until their liberation. Many of the surviving children once liberated found themselves

orphans and an enormous task of rebuilding their lives was to begin (Johnson 517). In 1945 the

war ended. By then all the concentration camps were closed and there were very few survivors.

Looking back at the statistics and seeing the killing rate of children, the harsh labors they had to

perform, and the great efforts of surrounding countries to help keep them safe although at the

same time making them completely disregard their past lives shows the severity of the Holocaust

and how apparent it is even today. Across cultures, nothing is more somber, heart wrenching,

and disparaging than the death of over 2 million children.

Citations:
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Concentration Camp Listing. Jewish Virtual Library. A Division of The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. 3

April 2011

<http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/cclist.html>.

“Janina Parfjanowicz.” Children of the Holocaust. 1.14.16 (1996) 1 pp. Hotbot.Internet. 3 April 2011.

Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburg Holocaust Center. Jewish Life During the Holocaust. “Jews in Hiding” 11

April 2011.

http://www.jewishfederationpittsburgh.org/page.aspx?id=148359

Johnson, Paul. A History of the Holocaust. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1976.

Josh, P. Disease During the Holocaust. March 12, 2009. Socyberty.Internet. 10 April 2011

“Margot Heuman.” Children of the Holocaust. 1.14.34 (1996) 1 pp. Hotbot.Internet. 3 April 2011

Paldiel Mordecai. The Path of the Righteous Gentile Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. Hoboken, NJ: KTAV

Publishing House Inc, 1993.

“Toska Feuchtbaum.” Children of the Holocaust. 1.14.19 (1996) 1 pp. Hotbot. Internet. 3 April 2011.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Anne Frank.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. . 3 April 2011

.http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005210