Hiding Chilrden During the Holocaust

The Holocaust began January 30, 1933, and concluded May 8, 1945. During the Holocaust eleven million people were killed under the rule of Adolf Hitler. Out of these eleven million people, six million Jewish people, and one million children had lost their lives. Hearts were being broken one after another, because of Hitler, the heinous ruler who advocated the punishment of death for anyone who differentiated from a German or Christian. It was essential to do whatever was possible to save a child’s life. Hiding a child during this brutal time was another step forward to fighting for what was right.

Rahel Renate Mann is proud to say she is a Holocaust survivor. She is now 75 years old and still remains in Berlin, where she was once hidden from the Nazis. Thrown out of the hospital as a newborn on June 1937, she continued to grow up with the weight of the holocaust horrors on her shoulders. In 1941, her mother was abducted, and the Vater family hid Rahel. Eventually she was overstaying her welcome, and the Vater family couldn’t handle the pressure anymore. She was sent underground and met Ettel Friedrich Von Rebenau who kept the Jewish faith alive. They sang together until he was taken when she turned seven, and she was sent back to the Vater family. There she remained until she was reunited with her deathly ill mother.

Similarly to Rahel, many times children had to separate from their parents. The emotional effects were consistent. Often, children quietly suffered because it was too dangerous to move or talk. In other cases, children may have been able to live openly rather than in attics or cellars. This was only if they didn’t look Jewish. For example, someone with blonde hair and blue eyes is considered to look more non-Ar...

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...s. In France a rescue group called, Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants, (Organization to Save the Children) was able to smuggle children out of internment camps.

In comparison to rescue groups, there were also individual rescuers. There were a handful of individuals who were able to do this and stand up for what they believed was right. Malka Fugtazki, from Lithuania, rescued children from the Kovno ghetto. She did this by feeding them sleeping pills, and tying the child to her body. With the help of a Jewish guard, she was able to bring them to safety at a Lithuanian orphanage. The Nazis forced these Ghettos by threatening the people. They threatened to shoot hostages unless a judenräte, Jewish council, was formed. These councils were in control of the Ghettos. Once you were put in a ghetto you had to remain there, and leaving without a guard was punishable by death.