C. To the Children - A Dedication

When a Jewish child is born, wishes are bestowed upon the parents to raise the youngster to be educated, to perform good deeds and to be able to be led to the wedding canopy...but the Nazis prevented 1,500,000 children from fulfilling this traditional blessing by snuffing out their young lives, because they were Jewish.

The plight of the child was immediately realized when the Nazis came to power. How parents would save their children from the worst imaginable fear was uppermost in their minds. They understood the only possible hope was a parting. But it took an incredible amount of courage and strength for parents to separate themselves from their children. In 1938-39, 10,000 children journeyed from Berlin and Vienna to England on the Kinder transports. As time went on and conditions became worse for the Jewish people, many children were put into various hiding places. Some of the hidden children were placed with Christian neighbors, while others spent their young years in convents and monasteries, growing up in strange, foreign surroundings. Then there were those youngsters who hid in the forest aiding the partisans, serving as couriers and helping the resistance groups. Children who managed to survive life in the ghettos saw their childhood end abruptly. Many were orphaned and left alone to fend for themselves after their parents were deported or died from disease and starvation. The ghetto child was forced to work and had to beg for bits of food. At selection, some children were able to pass as adults and managed to be put in a concentration or forced labor camp. They matured overnight. They not only acted as adults but were treated as such.

Youngsters who survived the Holocaust were not only cheated of their youth, but their lives as adults and parents would be affected forever.

Claire Shavrich Hertzberg,
Associate Director,
Queensborough Holocaust Center