War and Social Upheaval: Children in the Holocaust--Experiences


Figure 1.--

One problem that teachers face is when and how to discussthe Hiolocaust to children. In terms of books, The Diary of Ann Frank is probably a book than can be used for this introduction. Another book, written for the younger reader, is Howard Greenfeld's After the Holocaust which relates the experiences of eight child Holocaust survivors. The book is designed for readers about 13 and older to appreciate. The word, Holocaust, means destruction by fire, as Greenfeld notes in the introduction of his work, "After the Holocaust". Lives, property, and culture were destroyed by that cataclysm. The eight survivors of the Holocaust who share their experiences with the reader, however, also their youth.

Ruth Bild

Ruth Bild's family was deported to Poland by the NAZIs in 1938. The family managed to reach Belgium, where they were interned in a dentention camp known as Marneffe Camp. When the Germans invaded Belgium (May 1940), the Bild family escaped from the camp and settled in Brussels, hiding from the NAZIs. Ruth was taken to Namur, under pretense of being an orphan, and housed in the Convent du Bon Pasteur with false papers, using the name of Monique Lannoy. Soon afterwards Ruth returned to Brussels to be baptized, but the priest would only baptize the child if her mother (who was in hiding) were present. Ruth returned to convent where she hid throughout the occupation.

Ann Frank

One problem that teachers face is when and how to discussthe Hiolocaust to children. In terms of books, The Diary of Ann Frank is probably a book than can be used for this introduction. The Diary of the young German teenager is the single best known account of the Holocaust because Anne puts such a human face on those struggling for their lives. Ann's family wasc German who like many German Jews fled to the Netherland for saftey. In the end the country proved a death trap.

Goldstein Boys

The Goldstein story is typical of the 25 accounts of hidden children assembeled by Greenfield. Jack and Bobby’s family had to trust strangers to take care of their sons and hide them so that they might survive the NAZI Holocaust. The righteous strangers made it possible for two boys to be delivered from out of the evil that was Hitler’s New Order. The Goldstein's were Austrian Jews leading a normal, comfortable life in Vienna. After the Anchsluss managed to get to Belgium. The boys were almost picked up in a raid. After this Father Bruno arranged to hide them in a convent.

Eric Kandel

Eric Kandel is a brilliant Nobel laureat in neural science at Colombia Unive5rsity. He was living with his family in Vienna when the Anchluss occurred (March 1938). The next day a friend told him that jhis father had told him not to speak with Eric anymore. For several months the other children in his class did not speak with him, except for one girl. Eventually he was expelled from his school and went to a Jewish school. On Kristalnacht his father was arrested. Two NAZI police nen showed up at their apartment. Eric had just turned 9 years old. His mother was given a few minutes to pack a few belongings and his mother with Eric and his brother then they were thrown out into the street. They were taken in by another Jewish family. His father was released after only a few days because he had served in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I. When they returned to their aprtment, everything of value had been removed. He remembers because all of his toys were gone, looted by neighbors. This included all his birthday presents. The family managed to get out of NAZI Germany because they had relatives in America. They left in stages, his parents got out only a few months before World War II began and reached the United Statyes--Brooklyn. It was his desire to learn how such horrors occurred that led him into neuroscience.

Eight Children

Another book, written for the younger reader, is Howard Greenfeld's After the Holocaust which relates the experiences of eight child Holocaust survivors. The book is designed for readers about 13 and older to appreciate. The word, Holocaust, means destruction by fire, as Greenfeld notes in the introduction of his work, "After the Holocaust". Lives, property, and culture were destroyed by that cataclysm. The eight survivors of the Holocaust who share their experiences with the reader, however, also their youth. The five women and three men who recount their ordeals during and after the Holocaust were born between 1925 and 1934; five are originally from Poland, one from Hungary, one from Romania, and one from Latvia. Their stories are diverse. One survivor and her family lived in the loft of a barn, concealed from the NAZIs for more than a year; others were sent from urban ghettoes to death camps, such as Auschwitz, with their families. Mr. Greenfeld writes that some Jewish children were given new identities and lived in the relative security of convents or orphanages. Some brave families, knowing the risks, took in children and claimed they were family members.

Other Individual Accounts

Many of the pages describing the Holocaust in specific countries have references to the experiences of individual children who survived the Holocaust. We will gradually link those expeiences here.

Sources

Greenfeld, Howard. After the Holocaust.








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Created: 5:33 AM 10/15/2004
Last updated: 1:23 AM 5/27/2006