Focus on Children in the Holocaust and explore the Means of survival.
In spite of their acute vulnerability, many children discovered ways to survive. Children smuggled food and medicine into the ghettos, in turn smuggling out their own personal possessions to trade for said goods. Children in youth movements later escaped the ghettos to join underground resistance activities such as Soviet partisan units; others formed their own units to harass the German occupiers. Many children escaped with parents or other relatives to family camps run by Jewish partisans; others had to escape on their own.Many Jewish children were forced to fake their identity for their own safety. They obtained false identity papers that usually came from anti-Nazi resistance in order to pretend to be Aryans. Even though this was one of the only ways to survive for children, it imposed major security risks. The police and other Nazi authorities closely examined documents in their search for Jews to detect disguised Jews.Circumcision, a Jewish tradition in which the foreskins of infant male Jews are removed, was an easy way to identify Jews because non-Jews usually did not go through the procedure. Boys had to be mindful about using public restrooms and participating in team sports because their Jewish identity could be exposed. As a solution, they had to go through additional procedures that would hide circumcision or at times even dress up as girls.Between 1938 and 1939, the Kindertransport (Children's Transport) was a rescue effort organized by the British government in cooperation with Jewish organizations. It brought about 10,000 refugee Jewish children to safety in Great Britain from Nazi Germany and German-occupied territories, although their families did not come with them. Likewise, Youth Aliyah (Youth Immigration) was responsible for integrating thousands of children into life in Palestine for their survival as well as the revitalization of the Yishuv, the Jewish settlement in Palestine.In the United States, some individuals attempted to help, and efforts around the country allowed the rescue of 1,000 Jewish children from Nazis. Unlike the English work, the actual rescue efforts were not backed up by the government in any way; those who wanted to help had to find their own ways to fight immigration quotas. Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus were a couple who brought 50 Jewish children to the United States to save them from Nazis in 1939 before the war started. They selected the 50 children by interviewing their families, who were close to obtaining a US visa. Most of the children, who had moved to Philadelphia, were eventually reunited with their families. Inspired by the Kindertransport, Congress was urged to allow up to 100,000 Jewish children to come to America. In 1939, the Wagner-Rogers Bill was proposed, which was to admit 20,000 unaccompanied Jewish child refugees under the age of 14 into the United States. However, in February 1939, the bill failed to get Congressional approval.Meanwhile, some non-Jews hid Jewish children; sometimes, as in the case of Anne Frank, they hid other family members as well. In some cases the Jews were actually hidden; in other cases, they were adopted into the family of their "hider". A unique case of hiding occurred in France. Almost the entire Protestant population of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, as well as many Catholic priests, nuns, and laymen, hid Jewish children in the town from 1942 to 1944. In Italy and Belgium, many children survived in hiding.In Belgium, the Christian organization Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne hid Jewish children and teenagers with the backing of the Queen-Mother Elisabeth of Belgium.After the surrender of Nazi Germany, which ended World War II, refugees and displaced persons searched throughout Europe for missing children. Thousands of orphaned children were displaced in camps. Many surviving Jewish children fled eastern Europe as part of the mass exodus (Brihah) to the western zones of occupied Germany en route to the Yishuv. Youth Aliyah continued its activities after the war by helping child survivors to move to Palestine, which soon became the state of Israel in 1948.
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon Wagner-Rogers Bill Kindertransport Youth Aliyah searched throughout Europe for missing children Anne Frank child survivors Circumcision Brihah World War II ghetto Yishuv Jews World War I anti-Nazi resistance Jewish Nazi