Children Of The Holocaust

Over one million Jewish children died during the Holocaust. They were ripped out of their homes and taken away from their families, and stripped of their childhoods. Innocent lives were caught in a war that they were not able to stop. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, he promised Germany that he would improve life their by getting rid of the one race that caused the problems, the Jews. Jews, including Jewish children, were sent to concentration camps, inspected, and if approved, were sent to work. All others would have been sent to be killed. Being sent to work did not ensure survival, children would be given very little food and water, and beaten severely, which caused their death. None of the children of the Holocaust will ever

"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children" (Nelson Mandela). If this statement is considered true, then it's fair to say that during times of the Holocaust, the German society was at an all time low. Children during the Holocaust did not have a carefree childhood, like they should have, but instead were placed under strenuous conditions. They had to go through being separated from all family and friends, being chosen the first to go to, and in most cases a permanent loss of family members. The Holocaust was undoubtedly a horrific experience for everyone involved but for children it must have been traumatizing.

“One of the most extraordinary aspects of Nazi genocide was the cold deliberate intention to kill children in numbers so great that there is no historical precedent for it.” (Lukas, 13 Kindle) About 1.5 million children were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust—one million being killed because they were Jews (ushmm.org) The Germans had a clearly defined goal of killing the Jewish children so that there would be no remnants of their race to reproduce, resulting in extinction. Not only were the children that were victimized in the Holocaust persecuted and murdered, but they were all stripped of their childhood. Children were not allowed to be children—they had to, for their own survival, be adults. The oppression of children because of

The Holocaust was a tragic event that after 83 years many people still remember. The Holocaust is the biggest genocide in human history. It is important to learn about the Holocaust because it helps citizens foster a caring and responsible society. It helps us study the behavior of the part-takers so that a genocide of any kind will never happen. It also helps us see how our decisions have an effect on us and others.

Throughout the Holocaust, “the Nazis killed over 1.5 billion children” (Children during the Holocaust). Of these children, one million of them were Jewish. The Nazis had no good reason to kill them; they only killed these innocent children because Hitler did not care for their race. The Nazis, a forceful, merciless power led by Adolf Hitler brainwashed the country of Germany into believing that Jews and other races were awful. These children bravely fought persecution and avoided death by hiding or receiving help, which makes us remember these people like Anne Frank, but it was not just the Jewish and other races that were in trouble, the German children got into trouble by joining Hitler Youth.

According to the texts and eyewitness accounts, the Holocaust had horrendous effects on the people who lived through it. During this time Jews were being rounded up and put into concentration camps by order of the German government. Writings and testimonies from survivors of the Holocaust are around even to this day. According to these sources, Holocaust survivors suffered tremendously since they were treated as less than human , they lost loved ones, and were constantly abused.

For the past 300 years, the world’s society has displayed lots of unbelievable human cruelty. For example, slavery in the 18th and 19th century, African Americans were forced into harsh work labor because of their skin color. Then in the 20th century, a determined dictator, Adolf Hitler, murdered and tortured eleven million lives. This horrifying event was called the Holocaust, it occurred in 1933 but ended in 1945. Adolf Hitler was angered about the result of World War 1, so he blamed Jewish people, the disabled, and other groups. During the holocaust, the eleven million lives were forced into harsh work labors or was put into gas chambers and was killed instantly. People described the Holocaust as inhumane act, and the people that survived it, could really say it was a scarring memory.

Baron, L., & Eisman, H. (1996). Stress resilience, locus of control, and religion in children of Holocaust victims. Journal Of Psychology, 130 (5), 513. Retrieved from

There were over 1,500,000 children killed during the Holocaust. When the camp was liberated on January 27, 1945, there were only 451 children found alive. (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hidden.html) Most who were found alive are now in their 80s and 90s. Some have chosen to share their stories, while others choose to do so with families, or not at all. Children of the ages 13-18 had a greater chance at survival, although some kids below this age survived.

The Holocaust was a national event that affected many adult's and children's lives. Over 6 million people were killed during the holocaust. But it mostly affected Jewish people during this time

During the reign of the Third Reich, the symbolization of the pink triangle was used to identify the thousands of gay prisoners who were sent to extermination camps under Paragraph 175, the law that criminalized homosexuality between men. Researchers say that an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 gay men died in these camps, however this figure does not include those who were interned and later released, let alone those who died undocumented and forever forgotten to history.¹ These thousands of men were forced through excruciating cruelties with little to no reprieve or recognition of the atrocities perpetrated against them. It is because of this that while they are not a distinct racial, ethnic, or religious group, the treatment of those who bore the pink triangle during the Holocaust follows the genocidal process and as such gay Holocaust victims should be considered sufferers of genocide.

As the 1930’s came along, The Nazi’s set out a series of laws and regulations called ‘Nazi Laws’. One of the very first laws was ,”Laws against Overcrowding in German schools and universities”. This was a result of many children were looked down upon by Hitler and his Nazis as ‘racially inferior’. Letters from German Children to the editor of the Nazi tabloid Der Sturmer reveal a shameful potpourri Lettof and fanaticism against their Jewish classmates. The first punishment for the Jews and Gypsy children was to be presented in front of peers and downgraded by teachers as a lesson for the German children. Then all at once the children were restricted from all schools. Not long after the first act of public humiliation, the Germans invaded many Jewish neighborhoods, families and children were forced into overcrowded ghettos with scarce food resources and unhealthy living conditions . This was the Invasion of Poland, 1939. Jewish children died of starvation and little exposure to shelter, the great numbers of deaths caused by this were a mere indifference to the German officers. And because the food was such a high demanded resource, adults would send small toddlers between the crevices in the gates and over the walls to retrieve portions of food. This started a few of popular resistance activities, underground resistance was large. Sometimes if the Ghettos were run by Jewish relatives, certain ones could escape easier. Punishments would include

Many were killed by fires. Many schools had warnings about fire escapes and sprinklers but they were ignored. The children were locked in their rooms so that they wouldn't escape and if a fire were to happen they would be trapped and had no way to get out. They had windows and poles outside the window so they could slide down but the windows were locked and the pole was to far away for the children to reach it. Also some children died as runaways and were often frozen to death before they got anywhere. And some who tried to escape their abusers were found drowned in nearby

The implications of the Holocaust and the extent to which perceptions of the event have shaped Jewish views of identity are among the most crucial in today’s society. Literature revealed that although children of Holocaust survivors and perpetrators did not experience events directly, they might suffer in some form. Jewish descendants experience symptoms of trauma and bear the burden of replacing the dead. According to clinical experience and empirical research, this clinical population seems to have specific disturbances focused on difficulties in coping with stress and a high vulnerability to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This literature review will focus first on how trauma is transmitted and will then discuss the existence of any indicators of psychopathology in the offspring of Holocaust survivors.

The Holocaust is a very large topic with many subtopics within, which many people have never heard of. One in particular is the Hidden Children of the Holocaust. Like a majority of individuals, I never heard of this topic before, until I started my inquiry work. Hiding children during the holocaust was an effort to save thousands of children’s lives. The children were hidden in different ways, either with false identities, underground, and with or without their parents. The children with false identities were allowed to participate in everyday life activities, like attend school and socialize with children their age, which in the long run this lead to less emotional and mental issues. However, the children that were hidden and not allowed to leave their hiding spots often faced boredom, pain, and torment. Some children were capable of being hid with their parents while other children were not. Depending on the situation the child was in, depends on the effects it had on the child during this time. In this paper, I will be discussing works by two scholars, Natalia Aleksiun’s Gender and Daily Lives of Jews in Hiding in Eastern Galicia and Judy Mitchell’s Children of the Holocaust. Aleksiun’s article talks about the daily lives of Jews in hiding and also about how they prepared their hideouts. Aleksiun’s article mainly focuses on children that were hidden with their families. In Mitchell’s article, he focuses on the hidden children and gives examples/survivor stories on what it