Figure 1.--The most heart-wrenching scenes from the Warsaw Ghetto are those of children, especially the orphaned children begging on the streets. The tragic story of these and the thousands of other unidentified Warsaw Ghetto orphans are lost to history.

Thousands of Jewish children with and without their parents were forced into the Wasaw and and ither gettoes. Essentuially this meant the end of their childhood. One authot writes, "The Jewish child knows that it has to work, earn a living and sometimes take care of the whole family. The ghetto child doesn't laugh: it has already forgotten how. On its face is an adult scowl and it feels the bitterness of the wronged. Childhood doesn't exist." [Mawolt] The Germans did not allow schools in the Ghetto. Wealthy parebnts, however, sent their children to cladestine schools operated by teachers in the ghetto. Some children worked in factories set up in the Ghetto. This was a great benefit because workers got paid and could afford some food. Parents would send children out into the stree as vendors if they had simething to sell. Zionest groups set up youth groups. Children became adept at sneaking out of the ghetto and buying food to sneak back into the ghetto. Small children could squeeze between small cracks in the ghetto walls. Gradually this became more difficult as the Germans tuightened controls. In addition the Ghetto residents did not have much money or valuables to begin with and their limited resources were rapidly depleted. We are not sure what happened to the child smuggers. This probably depended on their age and the attitude of the individual German guard who caught them. Adults were probably summarily executed. I don't think this was the case of small children. Those most ebdangered were orphaned children with out any one to look after and assist them. They could be seen begging on the streets, but few ghetto residents had enough food for themselves and their own children. I am not sure why orphanages were not set up for these children whose parents had apparent been killed. Of course the Jewish Council did not have the resources to feed the children, butwe are unsure of just what efforts were made. TheJewish Organization for Social Care attempted to suport charity efforts. One report suggests that child welfare programs housed, fed, and educated both prphaned and poor children. We do not yet have much information on their operations or why there were so many prphans on the street. Irena Sendlerowa (Sendler) suceeded in smuggling some 2,500 children out of the ghetto to safety.

Sources

Mawolt, Jan.

Created: 6:28 PM 1/30/2013
Last updated: 6:28 PM 1/30/2013