Children of the Holocaust
This beautiful little girl is Helga Kahn & this is the last school photograph sh…e had taken …. ever. I’m afraid I can’t tell you her story today because no one knows just what happened to her, but considering she was a Jewish girl in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1940 I’d say we could all guess her eventual demise.

And her story is not unusual. There are 1.5 million Stories just like this one out there to be told, because One and a half million Jewish children were murdered in the Holocaust and were thus prevented from growing up and fulfilling their basic lives ~ to live, dream, love, play and laugh. Some faded photographs of children under the Nazi regime remain, and their questioning, accusing eyes cry out. And I challenge you to remain dry eyed as you look at them.

From the day the Nazis came to power, Jewish children became acquainted with cruelty, first in Germany and, as time passed, in every other country the Germans conquered or forged an alliance. The parents and families of these children were unable to grant them the security and protection they needed. Jewish children were separated from their non-Jewish playmates and expelled from state sponsored schools. They saw their parents lose the right to support their families, and often witnessed the descent of the family unit into an abyss of despair. As war broke out and anti-semitic policies worsened, the suffering of Jewish children increased … many were doomed to the horrific suffering of life in a ghetto ~ the bitter cold, the never-ending hunger and a multitude of dangerous diseases. There, cut off from the world, they lived in the shadow of endless terror and violence. As smuggling was central to survival in the ghettos, they were often forced to assume the new role of breadwinner for their disintegrating families.

Henrika Lazobert, a Jewish poet, wrote a paean to a daring young smuggler who, despite the risks, persevered in finding food for his family. The poem ends: ~

“I shall no longer come back to you [mother]
and only on my lipswill one worry freeze fast:
My beloved mother, tomorrow wholl bring you
your piece of bread as in the past?”

When the deportations to the extermination camps began, a chasm opened up in the lives of Jewish children. Throughout Nazi Europe, they fled and hid, separated from their parents and loved ones. Some of them found refuge in the homes of decent people whose conscience would not allow them to remain passive; several were hidden in convents and monasteries and boarding schools; others were forced to roam through forests and villages, hunting for food like wild animals and relying entirely on their own ingenuity and resourcefulness. Many were forced to live under assumed identities, longingly anticipating the return of their father and mother.

Some were so young when separated from their parents that they forgot their real names and Jewish identity. Many were forced to train themselves not to move, laugh or cry, or even talk. Upon liberation from Auschwitz, one little girl asked her mother, Mommy, may I cry now? (A Personal Oral recollection of my Grandmother who survived Auschwitz ~ Mrs. Pederofski was the ‘Mommy’ concerned!)

Of course, not all Jewish children were lucky enough to find a place of refuge, and many tens of thousands of children were caught and sent to the death camps. Their young age made most the first prey of the Nazi killing machine. More than a million and a half Jewish children were lost in those years, a whole murdered generation.

At first children were given lethal injections. Later they were starved or shot or bayoneted or strangled. Or used for mid-air target practice for snipers. These methods proved too much for some soldiers and too slow for the projected ‘Final Solution.’ Thus were born the extermination camps with their gas chambers disguised as showers. A guard at Auschwitz, testifying at the Nuremburg trial, admitted that at the height of the genocide, when the camp was killing ten thousand Jews a day, children were thrown into the furnaces alive. Never has humanity come closer to evil for evil’s sake.

Children ~ dependent, vulnerable, defenceless ~ are the litmus test of our humanity. Not by accident does the Hebrew word for compassion, ‘rachamim’, come from rechem, meaning a womb. We Cherish our children. The world does not. I told you previously that I would sometimes post tales of forgotten children along with their individual stories occasionally. My aim is to collect their stories, whatever remains of them for publication. It is important to remember them. It
is important to remember!

It is important to remember as anti-semitism is rising rapidly in every area of the globe, every country & it could happen again. It is time to issue a call to the Jews of the Diaspora to ‘Come Home’ now!

“Never again will Jewish children stare in fear begging to be spared. Never again will we let our enemies determine the fate of the Jewish people and we will able to protect our sons.” – IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi.

Picture posted by Pana NichuircSee More
“Never again will Jewish children stare in fear begging to be spared. Never again will we let our enemies determine the fate of the Jewish people and we will able to protect our sons.” ~ IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi. Pictures posted by Pana Nichuirc By: Jews News