There is one thing all hidden children of the holocaust have in common, silence. Lola Rein Kaufman is one of those hidden children. And she is done being silent. Lola Rein was a hidden child during the holocaust. She was one of the lucky ones; one of the 10,000- 500,000 that survived. Her family wasn’t as lucky. Lola endured, los, abandonment, and constant fear, but has now chosen to shed her cloak of silence.
There were two types of hidden children: the children that didn’t look like the stereotypical Jew, and were hidden in plain sight, in an orphanage or maybe with a family who pretended the child was an orphaned family member. Then there were the ones that were truly hidden, such as in an abandoned building, a hidden room, or- as Lola was- in a hole dug beneath a cellar in a farmhouse on the edge of town. Either way, the children had to stay silent. While Lola Rein writes of her time in hiding she says, “But what kind of life is this? Children are supposed to be noisy, not silent…they are supposed to be part of the world, not live like they don’t exist” (Rein Kaufne). Lola also tells of how, during her year of hiding, she hardly spoke.
For Lola, the nightmare of the holocaust started when her parents died. Her father developed a blood disease that killed him after being brutally beaten by a group of Germans. Her grandfather died shortly after. Her mother, a seamstress who had papers to work outside of the ghetto, was shot by a Nazi - for no reason other than he wanted revenge on a gestapo officer who “shot my Jews… I’ll shoot his Jews” (Rein Kaufman). Even through all the suffering Lola experienced as a young child, she didn’t give up. Lola’s Babcia - instead of mourning the loss of her children (she lost 4 of her 6 childre...
... middle of paper ...
...t Witness).
Lola was a lucky one. She survived. She had to hide with strangers who would have preferred that she was dead. Then she discovers that her only remaining family was murdered by the Nazis. After enduring what she did Lola never wanted to speak of it, but after 50 years of silence, she does.
Through all the monstrosities Lola faced as a child, she never gave up. Not when she was orphaned. Not when her Babcia sent her away to live with strangers. Not when she discovered that her grandmother had died. Not even when she was alone on the streets and forced to beg for food. That is why her story needs to be remembered. She IS a survivor.
Works Cited
Rein Kaufman. (n.d.). The Hidden Girl. Broadway: Scholastic.
Silent Witness. (n.d.). Retrieved from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/silent-witness/lola/flash/index.html
In researching testimony, I chose to write about Eva Kor’s. Eva and her sister Miriam were taken to Auschwitz II- Birkenau from Ceheiu, a Romanian ghetto, in the 1940’s. Eva’s story starts out in Port, Romania, where she was born and raised with her family before the Holocaust. Eva had two older sisters, Aliz and Edit, who were murdered during the Holocaust along with her parents. The last time Eva saw her father and sisters was when they arrived in Auschwitz.
•Although she may not be one of the most famous Holocaust survivors, she was one of the most important. She led about 2,500 children to safety from the horrible Ghetto's conditions. She was never forced to do any of the things she did, yet she still risked her life and almost lost it doing something so important to her.
In The book Devil in Vienna, by Doris Orgel, Inge a young, intelligent Jewish girl is faced with the same types of problems. Being Jewish at that time was no small problem. Instead of worrying what to wear the next day, she would have to worry about whether or not her family would be safe or taken to a concentration camp. Inge not only had to face the problem of keeping her family together, she had to find a way to maintain a friendship with her best friend Lieselotte. Lieselotte’s father was a Nazi and forbade her to keep any contact with Inge, but the two girls would always find a way to see or write to each other even when things were rough. Inges father also began to disprove of their friendship and pretty soon if either one were to mention the other’s name she would be punished. Yet the girls refused to forget each other. One day Inge received the news. She was to move away to Yugoslavia to escape Hitler’s regime. The girls promised to never forget each other and they never did; even long after the war was over.
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 short story, “The Shawl,” written by Cynthia Ozick, recounts World War II by providing a very vivid image of a Concentration Camp in Nazi Germany. As one reads, he or she can see that Ozick does a wonderful job in portraying the hard times of Jews during the Holocaust. In the first paragraph, we meet the central characters, Rosa, Stella, and Magda as they attempt to endure the fears of life in the Nazi Concentration Camp. Rosa and Stella, her niece, are marching in a line to the camp with Rosa’s daughter, Magda, wrapped and hidden in a shawl from the German soldiers. Unfortunately, at the end, Stella takes Magda’s shawl, and German soldiers kill Magda by throwing her into an electric fence. Throughout the story, Cynthia Ozick has used symbolism like life, protection, and death to make the readers understand the thoughts and feelings of each character which makes the climax really important and meaningful.
When in America, Helen found that it was hard not to talk about past and the stories of her imprisonment. “Some survivors found it impossible to talk about their pasts. By staying silent, they hoped to bury the horrible nightmares of the last few years. They wanted to spare their children and those who knew little about the holocaust from listening to their terrible stories.” In the efforts to save people from having to hear about the gruesome past, the survivors also lacked the resources to mentally recovery from the tragedy.
Elli Friedmann has returned 50 years later for a ceremony to the spot where she was once liberated by the American army. Living during the Holocaust, she has chosen to give us her story.
Arkell, Harriet. "Astonishing bravery of the Jewish family who escaped the Holocaust by hiding in an underground cave - for a year-and-a-half." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 05 Apr 2013. Web. 13 Nov 2013. .
I agree with Anne because a lot of people hid Jews during the holocaust. Miep and Mr. Kraler help the Frank, Van Daan, and Miep’s dentist, Mr.Dussel during the Holocaust. They hid them even though she knew it was against the law. They both kept everyone a secret, and they also got them food every day and snuck upstairs to the attic before the workers came. “Mr. Kraler: I must go before the workmen get here. Miep or I will bring you food and the news and find out what your needs are.” (Goodrich and Hackett 515).Miep’s first grocer hid a Jew too. The Nazi somehow found out and he was taken to a concentration camp. Another story would be about Schindler. Schindler owned a factory, and early one all he cared about was money. Then he saw all the Jews in the Ghetto get taken by the Nazi’s. He felt really bad and started to take care of his Jewish workers even better. Once all of his workers were sent to concentration camps, he went to the concentration camps and demanded his to get his workers back. He got his workers back and sort of hide them will making them do “work”. He is credited of saving more than one thousand people during his lif...
When judging a movie, it is important to consider the characters and how well or unwell they are portrayed. It takes real talent to appropriately capture the true personality of characters. In “Hidden in Silence”, Kellie Martin plays the heroine, Fusia Podgorska, and she did an excellent job obtaining the charisma of this young woman. Fusia’s little sister, Helena, is acted by Gemma Coughlan (“Hidden in Silence”). This young actress gave a great example of the innocence of a child in the midsts of the Holocaust. Isaac Diamant, Max Diamant, and Lubic were three boys who were romantically involved with Fusia at some point throughout the story. Max, acted by Tom Radcliffe, becomes the main man involved with Fusia in the movie (“Hidden in Silence”).
interesting to me that the more her mother got sick, the more Lola lashed out. It as if she was no longer feared her mother; she instead wanted to hurt her. Perhaps Lola took this callous approach after all the years of abuse. The author demonstrates through the change of Lola’s appearance; she dyes and shaves her hair, takes on a more “punk rock” look and these changes send her mother into a rage, She tries to force Lola to wear her wig; however, Lola sets it on fire. Although these changes were physical, I believe the author used them to show us that Lola wanted to be the opposite of what her mother wanted her to be.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness,” Desmond Tutu once said (“Desmond Tutu Quotes”). During the Holocaust, the Jews were treated very badly but some managed to stay hopeful through this horrible time. The book Parallel Journeys by Eleanor Ayer shows how Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck who had two very different stories but managed to stay hopeful. Helen was a Jew who went into hiding for awhile before being taken away from her family and being sent to a concentration camp. Alfons was a member of the Hitler Youth where he became the youngest member of the German air force. To him, Hitler was everything and he would die any day for him and his country. As for Helen, Hitler was the man ruining her life. The Holocaust was horrible to live through but some managed to survive because of the hope they contained.
The Silber Medal winning biography, “Surviving Hitler," written by Andrea Warren paints picture of life for teenagers during the Holocaust, mainly by telling the story of Jack Mandelbaum. Avoiding the use of historical analysis, Warren, along with Mandelbaum’s experiences, explains how Jack, along with a few other Jewish and non-Jewish people survived.
The children during the holocaust had many struggles with their physical health. They were forced to stay in very small places and were unable to have contact with a doctor if they had gotten sick. Also they had a lack of food and some children in their host homes would get abused and mistreated. At least a little over one million children were murdered during the holocaust (“Children’s diaries”). Out of all the Jewish children who had suffered because of the Nazis and their axis partners, only a small number of surviving children actually had wrote diaries and journals (“Children’s diaries”). Miriam Wattenberg is one out of the hundreds of children who wrote about their life story during the time of the holocaust (“Children’s Diaries”). She was born October 10, 1924 (“Children’s Diaries”). Miriam started writing her diary in October 1939, after Poland surrendered to the German forces (“Children’s Diaries”). The Wattenberg family fled to Warsaw in November 1940 (“Children’s Diaries”). At that time she was with her parents and younger sister (“Children’s Diaries”). They all had to live in the Warsaw ghetto (“Children’s Diaries”). Halina, another child survivor, tells what happened to her while in hiding. Halina and her family went into hiding ...
He gave her his coat and she told him the story with the Partisan unit. After walking or a block, Sava took her to this museum where there was a couple, Serif and Stela, and their baby son, Hebib, “Lola looked up and recognized her. It was the young wife who had given her coffee when she came to collect the laundry” (78). The couple had welcomed Lola into their home and gave her shelter. They gave her the Muslin name Leila, dressed her in Muslim clothes and told her that she was here as maid to help Stela with the baby. After weeks, Lola was getting used to living with Serif, Stela, and Habib and was less afraid of getting caught by German soldiers. One day Serif came back from library and had brought the Haggadah, a Jewish book, with him. Stela was worried about having the book in their house so serif returned it to the library of the mosque where it will probably not be found by the Nazis. Afterwards, they had traveled “outside the city, at a fine house with a high stone wall” (89), where Lola said goodbye to Stela and the baby and her and Serif walked into the dark.