Children During The Holocaust

The Holocaust is an infamous event that engineered the definition of the word genocide. Deadly events from the Holocaust occurred between 1933 and 1945. Over the twelve years of the Nazi regime almost two-thirds of the European Jewish people would be wiped off this earth. How did the indescribable genocide of the Jewish people start? A tree is fed by water from roots underground, the tree’s roots are the main source of structure and support. Without stable roots embedded into the ground, a tree is sure to die. Anti-Semitism is the root system found within the, so called, Holocaust tree. The repulsive events that surround the Holocaust are backboned by the ingrained anti-Semitism perspectives found within Germany and German occupied territories. With the help of Hitler and Nazi political leaders, Nazi Germany successfully encouraged propaganda onto even the most elite

One group of people in the Holocaust who sometimes are overlooked are Jewish children. Every child of the Holocaust viewed situations differently, how could a child hold their sense of humanity when adults could not? One might say it was easier for children to hold on to their humanity during the Holocaust because of their ignorance of the deadly situations occurring around them. Being too young to comprehend life before concentration camps, genocide was an everyday occurrence. How could a small child living in a concentration camp have the comprehension to express dehumanization surrounding their everyday life? In this paper I intend to show Nazi propaganda and dehumanization during the Holocaust through a child’s perspective, and how a child, named Helga Weiss, held on to humanity while living in the most inhumane