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| Freitag, 8. Februar 2013 | ||||
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Hidden Children and the HolocaustWhen World War II began in September 1939, there were approximately 1.6 million Jewish children living in the territories that the German armies or their allies would occupy. When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, perhaps as many as 1.5 million Jewish children were dead, targeted victims in the Nazis’ calculated program of genocide. As Warsaw ghetto historian Emanuel Ringelblum wrote in 1942, “Even in the most barbaric times, a human spark glowed in the rudest heart, and children were spared. But the Hitlerian beast is quite different. It would devour the dearest of us, those who arouse the greatest compassion - our innocent children.” Liberation from Nazi tyranny brought no end to the sufferings of the few Jewish children who survived the Holocaust. Many would face the future without parents, grandparents, or siblings. Death Hitler made the decision in 1941 to carry out the systematic mass murder of Jews. Mobile killing squads followed the German army into the Soviet Union in June 1941, and by the end of the year, murdered almost 1 million Jewish men, women, and children. That December, the Chelmno killing center began operation. During 1942, the Nazis established five more death camps to carry out the gassing of Europe ’s Jews. All Jews were targeted
for death, but the mortality rate for children
was especially high. Only 6 to 11% of Europe ’s prewar Jewish population of children
survived as compared with 33% of the adults. The young
generally were not selected for forced labor, and the
Nazis often carried out “children’s actions” to
reduce the number of “useless eaters” in
the ghettos. In the camps,
children, the elderly, and
pregnant women routinely were sent to the gas chambers
immediately after arrival. | ||||
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According to the above presented information, about 6 million jews were murdered during WW II (of a total of about 9 million), and thereof as many as 1.5 million Jewish children. By the end of the war, only a few thousand Jewish children had survived the camps, and about 96,000 altogether. There are still yet more than 500,000 survivors worldwide at the beginning of 2013, and in Israel just over 200,000. The average age of a survivor is at present 79 years, corresponding to 11 years in 1945. Drawing upon the common mortality tables, 500,000 survivors aged 79 years today, roughly correspond to about 1 million children survivors at the end of WW II. Holocaust experts like Prof. Stefanie Schüler-Springorum
(left above) | ||||
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