Children during the Holocaust, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, tells the story of the Holocaust through the eyes, and fates, of its youngest victims. This compelling book tells the story of the Holocaust through the eyes, and fates, of its youngest victims. Following the arc of the persecutory policies of the Nazis and their sympathizers and the impact these measures had on Jewish children and adolescents, the chapters begin with the years leading to the war, to the roundups, deportations, and emigrations, to hidden life and death in the ghettos and concentration camps, and to liberation and coping in the wake of war. This volume examines the reactions of children to discrimination, the loss of livelihood in Jewish homes, and the public humiliation at the hands of fellow citizens and explores the ways in which children's experiences paralleled and diverged from their adult counterparts. The author also reflects upon the role of non-Jewish children as victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. Offering a collection of personal letters, diaries, court testimonies, government documents, military reports, speeches, newspapers, photographs, and artwork, Children during the Holocaust highlights the diversity of children's experiences during the nightmare years of the Holocaust.
Author's Introduction Abbreviations Introduction by Nechama Tec Chapter One: Children in the Early Years of Anti-Semitic Persecution -From Assimilation to Marginalization -In the Schoolroom -"I Decide Who Is a Jew" -Training Youth for Jobs Abroad -Reichskristallnacht -The Dismissal of Jewish Children from "German" Schools -What's in a Name? Israel and Sara Chapter Two: Children and the War -The First Taste of Conflict -Caught in the Crossfire: The War on Civilians -The War's Long Shadow: The Last Years of Conflict Chapter Three: Lives in the Balance: Escape and Deportation -Strangers in a Strange Land: Emigration -Victims of Einsatzgruppen Activity -"We've Been Picked Up": Roundups and Deportations Chapter Four: Children in the World of the Ghetto -Into the Ghetto -"The Garden of Eden": Education in the Lodz Ghetto -"Give Me Your Children": The "Children's Actions" -Death and Survival in the Ghetto Chapter Five: In the Concentration Camp Universe -At the Edge of the Abyss -Death at Auschwitz -In a Living Hell: Survival in the Camps Chapter Six: Children in the Web of Racial Hygiene Policy -Compulsory Sterilization -The Many Faces of Lebensborn -"Euthanasia" -The Danger of "Gypsy Blood": Roma and Sinti -Children as "Research Material" Chapter Seven: The Lives of Others: "Aryan" Children and the Nazi Regime -Youth Organizations in the Third Reich -Nonconformity and Dissidence: The Edelweiss Pirates -Hearts and Minds: Nazi Propaganda -Perpetrators and Victims -German Children and the War Chapter Eight: The World of the Child -Escape into Learning -At Play during the Holocaust -Innocence and Knowledge -In Hopes and Dreams: Coping with the Holocaust Chapter Nine: Rescue and Resistance -Youth and Armed Resistance -Unarmed Resistance: The Children's War -In Hiding -Children and Aid Organizations: The Politics of Rescue -When Rescue Fails Chapter Ten: Elsewhere Perhaps? Children and the End of the Holocaust -"Over This Field of Death, Peace Breaks Out": Liberation -The Search for Family Members -Where Is Home? -The Process of Remembering List of Documents Bibliography Glossary Index About the Author
