“‘If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of being doomed, will be held up as an example.’” ― Anne Frank (“Children During the Holocaust” 5). In Lodz, Poland, the Nazis had reduced a Jewish population of more than 220,000 to almost less than 1,000 (“Hidden Children: Quest for Family” 2). Families during the Holocaust were treated so badly that being Jewish for some Jewish children had come to symbolize persecution while Christianity symbolized security (“Hidden Children: Quest For Family” 3). And, another frequent problem of the separation of the family was a child's inability in later life to form effective bonds (“Separation from the Family” 12). The Holocaust was something people could only imagine. Families were split apart, loved ones were …show more content…
lost and souls had to be refound (“ Hidden Children: Quest for Family” 1).
Unfortunately, children were rarely reunited with their families after the Holocaust was over (“Separation from the Family” 11). In my book, Lina’s brother was “ grabbed by the shoulder” (Sepetys 26) and the officers started to drag him away from their family. Lina explains the Nazi officers bursting into her home and they did not care at all about her family or her, she pictured a “big rug being lifted and a Soviet broom sweeping them under” (Sepetys 23) and that was exactly what was going to happen. The Nazi’s treated every person like trash. The emotional trauma was often what took most people “to their graves” (“Separation from the Family” 12). People did not know how they were going to go back to normal life, alot of children forgot what a normal life was like (“ Hidden Children: Quest for Family” 3). Most families that were still in tact,
often had trouble reconnecting due to the fact that they had been separated for so long (“Separation from the Family” 12). People often forgot their families and the bonds the had once shared. Although few families were reunited, the ones that stayed together during the Holocaust were strong. The Nazi officers saw it has ripping families apart, while families saw it as a reason to stay even stronger for each other (“ Family Gave Them Strength” 8). The Nazis did not care about any of the people that they hurt and punished. Due to this, children and adults had trouble trusting their loved ones after the Holocaust (“Separation from the Family” 12). In my book Lina explains going to bed at night and “seeing Papa’s face” (Sepetys 301). And like her, other children would go to bed at night seeing their loved one’s faces and feeling completely alone in a time when they most needed someone. Most of the surviving population of the Holocaust was children. Their experiences were often told through books and movies. After going through something so traumatic children, who came out of the Holocaust as young adults, wanted to share what happened and shed light on how bad things really were. Throughout the Holocaust, “children were the most vulnerable”(“Children During the Holocaust” 4). In my novel, Lina was violated by an officer she felt his “fingernails scratch cross her skin” and she could do absolutely nothing about it (Sepetys 98). Children went through this daily during the Holocaust, and like Lina, if they tried to do something about it, they would be seriously punished. The Nazi officers would use children as a reason to get mothers to do things for them. Once separated from their families, children were rarely reunited with their families. Most of the children that the officers saw as weak, were immediately taken into gas chambers (“Children During the Holocaust” 5). If children were lucky they were put into hard labor instead of going straight to the gas chambers (“Hidden Children: Quest for Family” 2). Children would look for any kind of relationships they could form to somehow help them get through the day ( “Family Gave Them Strength” 8). Most of the time children would form a relationship with people not related to them, then after the Holocaust they did not want a relationship with their real families (“Separation from the Family” 10). This became a lasting effect on many of the surviving families, children wanted nothing to do with their living family members (“Separation from the Family” 10). Children, mainly toddlers during the Holocaust wanted nothing to do with the parents or loved ones that came back for them after the Holocaust (“Separation from the Family” 12). Families tried hard to maintain a sense of normal life even in the concentration camps. Women would share recipes and children would talk about their home lives to try and make the situation better (“Family Gave Them Strength” 8). Lina would make references back to her home life and have flashbacks to keep her sane during Holocaust (Sepetys 125). Families would try to stay strong and do everything they could to stay alive. But, people were pushed to their breaking point. In my book, an older man, could only talk about why he wasn't privileged enough to die (Sepetys 318). Unfortunately, many people reached this point, after losing their loved ones, and being tortured, they had nothing left. Also, parents were faced with the decision on whether to save their child, or let one be deported. (“Family Gave Them Strength” 9). The Nazi officers were brutal and Lina, a child, witnessed “a commander pulled out a gun and shot Ona in the head”(Sepetys 101) , and no one that was around could do anything about it. Children witnessed things most adults could not even handle seeing. During the Holocaust families were separated and many lost their parents, sons or daughters as well as grandparents. Children became emotionally distraught before, during and especially after the Holocaust (“Separation from the Family” 11). Many parents were never reunited with their children and children often never found their lost loved ones. Even though the Holocaust was over, the emotional trauma never left (“Separation from the Family” 12). People will never be able to truly understand what the men women and children went through during this time. Emotionally, the Holocaust was never over for these people.
I decided to watch the testimony of Sally Roisman, a holocaust survivor. Sally had a strictly orthodox family, with a mother, father, and 10 siblings. Their family owned a textile mill which made dresses and suits. Sally attended a Jewish girls school but didn’t get the chance to finish her education before her school was closed down. Her teachers said very good things about her and that made her and her mother happy. Sally later returned and studied to finish school after the war. She still studies to make up for her loss today. Her family lived in an apartment complex were 15 families lived. 50% of the families were Jews in the complex.
It is almost unimaginable the difficulties victims of the holocaust faced in concentration camps. For starters they were abducted from their homes and shipped to concentration camps in tightly packed cattle cars. Once they made it to a camp, a selection process occurred. The males were separated from the females. Then those who were too young or too old to work were sent to the showers. Once the showers were tightly packed, the Nazi’s would turn on the water and drop in canisters of chemicals that would react with the water and release a deadly gas. Within minutes, everyone in the shower would be dead. The bodies would be hauled out and burned. Those who were not selected to die didn’t fair much better. Terrible living conditions, forced labor, malnourishment, and physical abuse were just a few of the things they had to endure. It was such a dark time. So many invaluable lessons can be learned from the holocaust and from those who survived it. One theme present in Elie Wiesel’s novel Night and Robert Benigni’s film Life is Beautiful is that family can strengthen or hinder one during adversity.
The Holocaust will forever be known as one of the largest genocides ever recorded in history. 11 million perished, and 6 million of the departed were Jewish. The concentration camps where the prisoners were held were considered to be the closest one could get to a living hell. There is no surprise that the men, women, and children there were afraid. One was considered blessed to have a family member alongside oneself. Elie Wiesel was considered to be one of those men, for he had his father working side by side with him. In the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, a young boy and his father were condemned to a concentration camp located in Poland. In the concentration camps, having family members along can be a great blessing, but also a burden. Elie Wiesel shows that the relationship with his father was the strength that kept the young boy alive, but was also the major weakness.
A Lucky Child by Thomas Buergenthal is a memoir about his time as a Jewish child in multiple ghettos and death camps in and around Germany during World War II. The author shares about his reunions with family and acquaintances from the war in the years between then and now. Buergenthal wished to share his Holocaust story for a number of reasons: to prevent himself from just being another number, to contribute to history, to show the power and necessity of forgiveness, the will to not give up, and to question how people change in war allowing them to do unspeakable things. The memoir is not a cry for private attention, but a call to break the cycle of hatred and violence to end mass crimes.
The life of a child in the 1930-1940 was not an easy life not if you were a Nazi, not if you were Jewish. These Children lost their childhood because of a war. Their shattered childhood creates stories that seem horrific to us today. Life as a child growing up in a Nazi family is probably easier than dealing with the problems that the Jewish children have. However, every Nazi child had to sign up for the Hitler Youth. The Hitler Youth was an organization to discipline young minds and preach to them about anti semitism. Hitler Youth was one of the largest youth groups in Europe at the time if parents did not have their children in it they would face fines or have charges of imprisonment. The Nazi regime brainwashed the kids, they made them aggressive and intolerable. In the group there was even a small ‘Gestapo’ that would make sure all the children were doing the correct task if not the ‘Gestapo’ would report this. This shows how much power the children were given. During the 1940s more boys were recruited to join the army or guard concentration camps and ghettos. When the allied forces surrounded Germany the Nazi’s decided everyone of he age of fifteen and above would have to fight the war. They would be given rigorous training,
It is in a child's nature to be dependant of its parents and family members. They rely on them to protect and take care of them, so when they are suddenly ripped out of that comfort and protection, imagine the impact it would have on them. During the Holocaust, there was nothing the parents could do to protect their children; it was inevitable if they were Jewish they were always at risk. But on top of their vulnerability, children were frequently separated from their family and loved ones. Whether it be going into a concentration camp or going into hiding, the Holocaust has many examples of families being torn apart. One example would be with twins. Twins we often used for scientific experimentation, and when they were brought into concentration camps they were immediately identified and separated. The children that were used for these experiments very rarely survived them, and if they did they never saw their twin again. In just a short amount of time they were ripped away from their families and comfort and thrown into this chaos and unbearable setting (Nancy Sega...
"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. University of South Florida. Web. 19 May 2014.
Regine Donner, a famous Holocaust survivor, once said, “I had to keep my Jewishness hidden, secret, and never to be revealed on penalty of death. I missed out on my childhood and the best of my adolescent years. I was robbed of my name, my religion, and my Zionist idealism” (“Hidden Children”). Jewish children went through a lot throughout the Holocaust- physically, mentally, and emotionally. Life was frightening and difficult for children who were in hiding during the rule of Adolf Hitler.
Williams, Sandra. “The Impact of the Holocaust on the Survivors and their Children.” at http://www.sandrawilliams.org/HOLOCAUST/holocaust.html, 1993
The second portion of the semester has had a focus on how the Holocaust has continued to cause devastation and familial conflict even after the war ended. Of the texts we have read, Maus by Art Speigelman and Still Alive by Ruth Kluger were two very different accounts of the Holocaust, however there was one strong continuity between the texts: the effects of the Holocaust were not exclusive to any single person or family, survivors and their offspring continued to suffer long after escaping the camps. The constant tension documented in Maus between Speigelman and his father was not exclusive to their family as Holocaust survivors; Ruth Kluger also incorporates her family struggles into her book by detailing the differences between her and her mother, even after her mother has passed away. Because their experiences differ, with Speigelman being the son of a Holocaust victim and Kluger actually enduring it, the texts took different forms, both linguistically and aesthetically, to communicate their messages of familial conflict.
Through selection at the extermination camps, the Nazis forced children to be separated from their relatives which destroyed the basic unit of society, the family. Because children were taken to different barracks or camps, they had to fend for themselves. In the book A Lucky Child by Thomas Buergenthal, the author describes the relief he felt when reunited with his mother after the War.
The General way kids lived in the Holocaust was very bad and what they went through. Children would be forced out of their houses with their families. The first group of kids that were transported out of their countries were the ones who lived in Poland. They where forced to live in the ghettos. After they were forced our of there countries they would be forced into the ghettos with very little food and water and being a kid you not get very much food and a result to that they would die faster than the rest of the family. When children were into ghettos they would become orphaned and would have to raise each other. The houses that they lived in were so small they would be so cramped that people would have to live on the streets. The way children would die is when in they were too weak to work they would just kill the Jews. There was over 1 million kids killed during this time in the ghettos from infants to teenagers these kids were split up with there families and they were the first ones in the gas chambers. The Germans considered kids non productive so they killed them (“Childrens History”).
During the Holocaust, life was given a new view, which opened up a world of sympathy to those being persecuted. 1 Two boys growing up in different lifestyles, being treated differently, and having more than one another, does not mean that a friendship can unite them in similarity, despite their differences. 2
They were confused and had no clue what great danger was headed their way. More than one million of the Holocaust victims were children. Thousands of children survived because they were hidden. The children of the Holocaust lived in the shadows. Rahel Mann was among the many Jewish children hidden from the Nazi’s during WW2. She was passed from cellar to cellar always staying one step ahead of the death squads. She was underground being passed from family to family. 'I spent all day on a cold stone floor sitting on a mattress, just a sliver of light coming in through a nailed down, grimy window,' she said. According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, there was no official organization for hiding children. Parents had no clue if their children were safe or even if they were going to survive. Hiding children often required money, and not every family could handle the cost. Many children were sent off
Childhood is a powerful and important time for all humans. As a child, the things one sees and hears influences the choices and decisions they make in the future. “How a child develops during early and middle childhood years affects future cognitive, social, emotional, language, and physical development, which in turn influences their trust and confidence for later success in life” (Early and Middle Childhood). Yehuda Nir’s, The Lost Childhood is a first person memoir based on the life of a youthful Jewish child who survived the Holocaust. Taking place from pre-World War II 1939, to post-World War II 1945, this memoir highlights the despicable things done during one of the darkest times in modern history. Prior to being published in October